The Ecole de Nancy
The Town of Nancy, already rich of a XVIIIth century
heritage, one and a half century later was the witness of a new dynamism
in the field of decorative arts and became together with Paris, one of
the most important places of Art Nouveau in France. Through the decisive
impetus given by Emile Gallé, glass-maker, ceramicist and
cabinet-maker, an alliance of artists and industrials of art gathered
together in 1901 under the name of “Ecole de Nancy”. Using plants as a
main source of inspiration, Gallé, Majorelle, Daum, Prouvé, Gruber,
Vallin and others had conferred on art objects of an artistic quality
and a new social dimension with a production where unique masterpieces
keep close to industrial pieces. The original aspect of the Ecole de
Nancy lies in the fact that there is a close bond between art and
industry. This development is accompanied by technical innovations
in fields tackled by these artist (glass, ceramics, textile, leather,
metal) which allows the creation of new objects (in the design and in
the materials used). Nancy and its 1900 heritage
The Art Nouveau buildings by Emile André, Lucien Weissenburger and also
by Henri Sauvage (architect of the Majorelle Villa) were able to create
the artistic and functional spirit of the Ecole de Nancy in the urban
space. More than one hundred buildings (commerce, coffee houses,
apartment buildings, banks…) resolutely “new” are still important in
the landscape of Nancy today. Settled in the old property of Eugène
Corbin, - main patron of that time – the museum of the Ecole de Nancy
collects together art objects (glass, ceramics, furniture, lights,
bookbinding…) signed by the most important artists of the Ecole de
Nancy. The Fine Arts Museum of Nancy hosts a collection of more than
three hundred Daum glasses and presents a number of masterpieces of the
painters of the Ecole de Nancy : Emile Friant, Victor Prouvé, Camille
Martin and Henri Royer.
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