Émile Gallé

French, 1846 - 1904

Émile Gallé was a French artist and designer who worked in glass and is considered to be one of the major innovators in the French Art Nouveau movement. He was noted for his designs of Art Nouveau glass art and Art Nouveau furniture and was a founder of the École de Nancy or Nancy School, a movement of design in the city of Nancy, France, where he was born. 

Gallé was born on 4 March 1846 in the city of Nancy, France. His father, Charles Gallé, was a merchant of glassware and ceramics who had settled in Nancy in 1844, and his father-in-law owned a factory in Nancy which manufactured mirrors. His father took over the direction of his mother's family business and began to manufacture glassware with a floral design. At the age of sixteen, he finished the Lycée in Nancy and went to Weimar in Germany from 1862–1866 to continue his studies in philosophy, botany, sculpture, and drawing. In 1866, to prepare himself to inherit the family business, he went to work as an apprentice at the glass factory of Burgun and Schwerer in Meisenthal and made a serious study of the chemistry of glass production. Some of his early glass and faience works for the family factory at Saint-Clémont were displayed at the 1867 Paris Universal Exposition. In early 1870 he designed a complete set of dishware with rustic animal designs for the family enterprise. During this time he became acquainted with the painter, sculptor, and engraver Victor Prouvé, an artist of the romantic "troubadour" style, who became his future collaborator in the Nancy School.

Gallé became involved in social causes. He was a founder, along with Victor Prouvé, of the Université Populaire de Nancy, offering university-level classes to workers. He was treasurer of the Nancy branch of the Human Rights League of France and in 1898, at great risk for his business, one of the first to become actively involved in the defense of Alfred Dreyfus. He also publicly defended the Romanian Jews and spoke up in defense of the Irish Catholics in Britain, and supported William O’Brien, one of the leaders of the Irish revolt.

In 1904, his health worsened. He was diagnosed with Leukemia and died on 23 September 1904. His son-in-law, Professor Pedrizet of Nancy University, took over the direction of the firm, but the new management did not keep up with the new styles, and the firm went out of business in 1931. Only the carved wooden door survives of his original studio, now in the garden of the Musée de l'École de Nancy.

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