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.