Vase with insect decoration

Émile Charles Martin Gallé (1846–1904) was one of the foremost glassware makers of the Art Nouveau style. His workshop in Nancy, Lorraine, attracted the finest glass artists of the age and made the city the centre of French glass art for several decades. This vase, with its powerful shape, dark colour and images of animals not always regarded as attractive, escapes severity by the delightful decorativeness of the insects’ antennae and the elegant and soft curves of their legs. The vase has a compact, somewhat heavy body divided by two rings and a downturned rim. It is made of layers of clear and dark purple glass. At the base, the dark layer has its full thickness, and the etching of the insect figures – crickets, locust and other winged insects of as-yet unidentified species – makes it increasing clear towards the top. After etching, details were added to the figures by polishing. An entomological – or in other cases botanical – determination of Gallé’s glassware should be promising, because in his youth he studied botany and natural history, and he had the ability to represent plants and animals on his work with surprising accuracy without confining the motifs to being purely lifelike reproductions. Oriental art was another area of interest to Gallé, as to many other Art Nouveau artists, and its effect is manifest on this vase: the representation of insects bears the influence of Japanese woodcuts.