Emile Gallé "Aux Ombelles" French Art Nouveau Cabinet

Name: Emile Gallé "Aux Ombelles" French Art Nouveau Cabinet
Brand: Emile Gallé
Price: 39500 USD
Availability: InStock

About the Item

A French carved and fruitwood marquetry inlaid Ombelliféres vitrine by Emile Gallé. The vitrine has marquetry ombelle flowers in its interior and on the panel below the bottom shelf. The interior has two small carved half shelves. The top and bottom have elaborately carved ombelle decorations. It sits on four sinuously carved feet, circa 1900. The vitrine's front marquetry panel features three Berce des prés composed in a similar manner to Kitao Shigemasa's Tree peony and Finch. Through Takashima Hokkai, Gallé was able to borrow a copy of Fleurs, oiseaux par Shigemasa (Kachōe shashin zue). Like Shigemasa, Gallé worked in the aesthetic of kacho-e (birds and flower painting) with a thorough understanding of the grammar of ikebana (flower arrangement). Gallé's expertise was so great that he was entrusted with organizing an ikebana retrospective for the 1900 Exposition Universelle. Ikebana is composed of three elements: shin (heaven, sun, male), soe (earth, female), and hikae/tai (humanity, child.) Gallé has arranged his flowers according to the Moribana school, a style of ikebana that came at the apex of the Meiji restoration. Shigemasa had his peonies according to Moribana principles: the right most "soe" flower leans at 45°, the middle "shin" flower at 10° and the leftmost "hikae" flower at 75°. Pivotal to ikebana is the principles of harmony and balance. It is the function of the 45° soe flower through angle to balance out the 75° hikae flower. While Gallé did not follow the rigid rules of Moribana, this should not be seen as an indication of inferiority. Rather, Gallé has merely solved the problem of balance in a different manner. While Shigemasa created a sense of balance through angle, Gallé made rendered the leftmost flower in madagascar ebony . The dark value serves as a visual weight, balancing an arrangement that otherwise approaches imbalance. Next to the Berce des prés is an Écaille martre (Tiger moth). Native to the same prairies as the Berce des prés, the inclusion of the Écaille martre gives the vitrine the crepuscular setting that Gallé loved so much. A similar cabinet is pictured in: Gallé Furniture, by Alastair Duncan and Georges de Bartha, Woodbridge, Suffolk: Antique Collectors’ Club, 2012, p. 307, plate 42. Signed, ''Gallé'' in marquetry.

Creator:

Emile Gallé (Maker)

Dimensions:

Height: 58.25 in (147.96 cm)Width: 25 in (63.5 cm)Depth: 18 in (45.72 cm)

Style:

Art Nouveau (Of the Period)

Materials and Techniques:

Fruitwood,Marquetry

Place of Origin:

France

Period:

1900-1909