Émile Gallé was born in Nancy, France on 4 May 1846. His father Charles was a glass and ceramics manufacturer, and Émile decided to follow in his father's footsteps. In addition to his artistic training, Gallé studied philosophy, botany and zoology, subjects that had a strong influence on him and were repeated motifs in his glass work.
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At the beginning of his career, Gallé worked mainly with transparent glass, which he decorated with enamel. Gradually he abandoned this technique to concentrate on opaque coloured glass. His breakthrough in the art world came at the 1878 Paris World's Fair – a tremendous stepping stone that made him famous around the world for the next decade. With his style inspired by nature and botany, Émile Gallé became part of the avant-garde of Art Nouveau, which was developing very rapidly in France at the time.
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Gallé was an extremely modern and innovative artist. He was constantly experimenting with new glass techniques, such as air bubbles and metal blades, which he incorporated into his work. Gallé also contributed to the revival of the glass industry by opening a workshop for mass production. On the one hand, this was obviously in his own interest, but he also wanted to help other artists with their production.
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Émile Gallé was a committed humanist and his social engagement was evident in many ways. He even organised a university that offered night courses for day workers. He was the founder of the École de Nancy, an avant-garde Art Nouveau group founded in Meurthe-et-Moselle in 1901. The school still exists today and also includes a museum.
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In the École de Nancy, with its furniture makers, glass and ceramic artists, the use of motifs and forms from nature was the focus. Other founding members of this innovative institution were René Lalique, Gabriel Argy-Rousseau and the Daum brothers.
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Émile Gallé died of leukemia in his hometown of Nancy on 23 September 1904 at the age of 58. However, he remains unforgotten for his colourful and visionary Art Nouveau vases, which are highly coveted on the auction market today and sell for hundreds of thousands of pounds.
