“Art for art’s sake” was a belief strongly espoused by the celebrated French designer and glassworker Émile Gallé. Through his ethereal glass vases, other vessels and lamps, which he adorned with botanical and religious motifs, Gallé advanced the Art Nouveau ideology and led the modern renaissance of French glass.
Gallé was the son of successful faience and furniture maker Charles Gallé but studied philosophy and botany before coming to glassmaking later in life. The young Gallé’s expertise in botany, however, would inform his design style and become his signature for generations to come.
After learning the art of glassmaking, Gallé went to work at his father’s factory in Nancy. He initially created clear glass objects but later began to experiment with layering deeply colored glass.
While glassmakers on Murano had applied layers of glass and color on decorative objects before Gallé had, he was ever-venturesome in his northeastern France, taking advantage of defects that materialized during his processes and etching in natural forms like insects such as dragonflies, marine life, the sun, vines, fruits and flowers modeled from local specimens.
Gallé is also credited with reviving cameo glass, a glassware style that originated in Rome. He used cabochons, which were applied raised-glass decorations colored with metallic oxides and made to resemble rich jeweling. Gallé's cameo glass vases and vessels were widely popular at the Paris Exhibition of 1878, cementing his position as a talented designer and pioneer.
During the late 19th century, Gallé led breakthroughs in mass production and employed hundreds of artisans in his workshop.
Botany and nature remained great sources of inspiration for the artist's glassmaking — just as they had for other Art Nouveau designers. From approximately 1890 to 1910, the movement’s talented designers produced furniture, glass and architecture in the form of — or adorned with — gently intertwining trees, flowers and vines. But Gallé had many interests, such as Eastern art and ceramics. The Japanese collection he visited at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London (then the South Kensington Museum) during the 1870s had made an impression too.
Breaking free from the rigid Victorian traditions, Gallé infused new life and spirit into the art and design of his time through exquisitely crafted glass vessels and pioneering new glassworking techniques.
Find a collection of Émile Gallé vases and other furniture and decorative objects on 1stDibs.
Emile Galle Nancy ceramic / Faience plate Enamel/ paint Decorative Art Nouveau
By Émile Gallé
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Beautiful painted ceramic by the well known Art Nouveau artist/ designer Emile Galle, also known for cameo glass etched and furniture .
Ceramic, Faience
Emile Galle , Nancy ceramic plate , Faience Enamel , Decorative Art Nouveau .
By Émile Gallé
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Beautiful hand painted reticulated and signed Galle in back made in Nancy in the late 19 th Century, He is well known by the Art Glass cameo vases . and also furniture .
Faience
Émile Gallé Miniature Cameo Vase, Art Nouveau, Ca 1900
By Émile Gallé
Located in Delft, NL
Émile Gallé miniature Cameo vase, Art Nouveau, ca 1900 Émile Gallé (Nancy, 1846 –1904) was a French glassmaker and furniture designer Émile Gallé 7...
Glass
WMF Art Nouveau Plate
By WMF Württembergische Metallwarenfabrik
Located in Vienna, AT
WMF Art Nouveau plate silver plated brass Germany about 1900-1910
Silver Plate, Brass
$355 / item
H 1 in W 8.5 in D 8.5 in
Émile Gallé St Clément Art Nouveau Trompe L'oeil French Asparagus Plate, 1870
By Émile Gallé
Located in Philadelphia, PA
From St. Clément, Luneville and designed by Émile Gallé, a Barbotine square shaped, trompe l’oeil asparagus plate, circa 1870. Five raised asparagus spears are strewn across a bei...
Earthenware
Émile Gallé long neck Cameo vase, Art Nouveau, 1904-1906
By Émile Gallé
Located in Delft, NL
Émile Gallé long neck Cameo vase, Art Nouveau, 1904-1906 Émile Gallé (Nancy, 1846 –1904) was a French glassmaker and furniture designer Émile Gallé 30 cm high long neck Cameo vase m...
Glass
Emile Gallé French Art Nouveau Cameo Glass Vase
By Émile Gallé
Located in Antwerp, BE
Emille Galle (1846-1904). Émile Gallé was a French glass maker and furniture designer, who had his home in his native Nancy. His favourite topic, which he frequently used in his wor...
Glass
French Faience Plate Emile Galle Saint Clement, Circa 1900
By Émile Gallé
Located in Austin, TX
French Faience plate signed Emile Galle Saint Clement Circa 1900. Decorated with cornucopia and flowers, butterfly.
Ceramic
$1,808
H 4.64 in Dm 3.34 in
Art Nouveau Cameo Vase with Sweet Pea Decor, Émile Gallé, Nancy, France, 1903/04
By Émile Gallé
Located in Vienna, AT
Flush foot, raised, widening body with a shoulder-shaped narrowing at the top, with a short, wide neck and flared, rounded mouth rim. Burgundy red overlay on the outside, etched leaf...
Glass
$3,383
H 9.61 in Dm 4.53 in
Emile Galle Art Nouveau Cameo Vase, Fleur-de-Lys, Nancy, France, Circa 1900
By Émile Gallé
Located in Vienna, AT
Single-flower vase in a baluster shape on a stepped round foot, with a conically flaring body, undulating sloping shoulders, a fluted neck, and a flared rim; colourless glass with mi...
Glass
19th Century French Faience Decorative Plate
Located in Winter Park, FL
A 19th century French faience charger or platter with typical hand painted burgundy floral decoration from St Clement in the East of France. Minor glaze loss. Old brass plate hanger...
Faience
French Art Nouveau Emile Galle Cameo Glass Moonlit Vase c1910
By Émile Gallé
Located in Worcester Park, GB
Rare Art Nouveau Emile Galle Cameo botanical vase, depicting flowers, in purple over blue and yellow. The flowers are set mostly against a dark blue background giving the illusion of...
Art Glass
$1,691
H 3.15 in Dm 2.56 in
Emile Galle Art Nouveau Cameo Vase With Silver Mounting, Nancy, France 1904
By Émile Gallé
Located in Vienna, AT
Bulbous shoulder vase on a flush stand, short neck piece of colourless glass with white powder meltings, overlay in blue-violet and green, meadow flower decoration etched in various stages, matt etched inside and outside, Cameo signature 'Gallé' with star on the wall between the plants.. Mounted with later silver mouth in a smooth, slightly flared design, decorated on the outside with two sculptural branch and cone bundles. Silver mount hallmarked 'Minerve casquée' for 950 silver, France, and master's mark. Hand-made Cameo Glass: Glass overlaid with several layers, with high-cut worked out motifs. Since the middle of the 19th century, the design has also been done by etching. Cameo glass vessels were already being made in antiquity; at the end of the 19th century, Émile Gallé further developed this glass art, created Art Nouveau designs and employed a large factory in Nancy...
Glass
$2,099
H 5.83 in Dm 3.35 in
Emile Galle Art Nouveau Cameo Vase, Crocus Decoration, Nancy, France, Circa 1910
By Émile Gallé
Located in Vienna, AT
Tubular vase with an outwardly curved body resting on a stepped, inwardly drawn ring-shaped base, and a correspondingly shaped, ring-shaped, inwardly drawn mouth; colourless glass wi...
Glass
Emile Galle, Nancy Set of Seven Dishes and One Serving Dish in Blues and Gold
By Émile Gallé
Located in New York City, NY
An unusual serving set of seven plates and one compote / footed centrepiece by Emile Galle. Each piece of antique Faience earthenware is hand signed and numbered E. Galle, Nancy These hand-painted dishes have scalloped decorative borders in blues and gold with Provencal motifs of dragons, peacock, heraldic scythe axes and flowering vines. A few dishes have a lighter blue decoration. The six plates are the same size and the peacock plate...