Les Iris ("Toutes les âmes sont prêtes...")

Emile Gallé (1846–1904) was a versatile artist and a passionate botanist. He drew on his observations of nature to create artworks in a variety of materials. This led to numerous innovative technical experiments at his glassworks in Nancy, Lorraine, established in 1894. This vase, created for the Exposition Universelle of 1900 in Paris, was produced using a complex overlay technique. Loosely arranged irises were carved in relief into multiple layers of coloured glass. The broken earth tones appear mysterious, corresponding to the line ‘Toutes les âmes sont prêtes …’ (‘All souls are ready ... ’) from a poem by the Symbolist poet Maurice Maeterlinck (1862–1949), which is carved into the outer surface of the vase. Such vases bearing verses of poetry are called ‘vases parlantes’ (‘speaking vases’).