Gabriel Argy-Rousseau

Vase known as "Tragi-comic"

circa 1922

Joseph Gabriel Rousseau called Gabriel Argy-Rousseau (1885-1953) was a French sculptor, ceramist and glassmaker who contributed to the rediscovery of cameo glass as a major glass art of the early twentieth century. If the technique of cameo glass dates back to ancient times, it fell into oblivion for a long time. In the last quarter of the nineteenth century, Henri Cros and a handful of artists, often ceramists of the Art Nouveau movement, such as François Décorchemont or Georges Despret, put it in the spotlight. The last of these precursors was Gabriel Argy-Rousseau. He was considered as the only glassmaker to have developed and used the complex process of cameo glass, the other glassmakers working with crystal paste. Entering the Ceramics School of Sèvres, he discovered the cameo glass in the workshop of Henri Cros. Gabriel Argy-Rousseau began to produce between 1910 and 1920. His early works were influenced by Art Nouveau style plant motifs and animal themes. He began at the 1914 Salon of the French Artists in Paris. Between 1921 and 1931, established rue Simplon in Paris, he was a shareholder in the Argy-Rousseau cameo Glass Society. With many collaborators, he produced small very colorful Art Nouveau and Art Deco subjects, distributed in small series: pendants, vases, lamps and night lights and, from 1928, sculptures (statuettes or bas-reliefs) in collaboration with Marcel Bouraine. Unlike his fellow ceramicists, he remained belatedly faithful to the polychrome effects and floral motifs of Art Nouveau style. He developed shimmering colors (ruby red, amethyst, gray, deep blue ...) and textures with marbled effects. He invented new processes for the superficial coloring of the paste, by painting oxide powder before second firing at a low temperature. His works were in glass paste, the statuettes usually in crystal paste. The glass creations of Gabriel Argy-Rousseau remain among the most typical and representative examples of Art Deco production. The production of the workshop ceased in 1931, but Argy-Rousseau continued to create pieces of crystal paste, because of the economic crisis, the opportunity to work the expensive process of the glass paste was no longer possible. He exhibited punctually, especially in 1934, glassware adorned with precious metals. His last exhibition took place a year before his death in 1952. He died forgotten, but left many works in the glass branch, now rediscovered.