Émile GALLÉ (1846-1904) - Lot 183

Émile GALLÉ (1846-1904) Baluster-shaped MOSQUE LAMP with flared neck in transparent smoked glass with Mamluk eulogistic inscriptions in Arabic thuluth script, on a background of stylized arabesques, hot-enameled with gold highlights, decorated with six applied and hot-modeled handles. Small cracks to one handle and some missing gold highlights. Signed Gallé. Circa 1884-1889. H. 27.7 D. 14.7 cm EXHIBITION : Musée des Arts décoratifs, Mosque lamp by Émile Gallé, on view at the Musée de l'École de Nancy, inv. Corbin 386 ; Corning Museum of Glass, New-York, model for the form, listed under no. 63.3.9. Inspiration from Islamic art, widely recognized in Émile Gallé's work on glass, is very rarely seen in his production of luminaires. There are few examples of this influence, but they testify to a more pronounced freedom of adaptation on the part of the designer. For our vase and mosque lamps, Gallé departs from the traditional model by incorporating figurative elements such as flowers, foliage and bunches of grapes into his decoration. In the 1880s, Islamic productions captured much of Émile Gallé's attention. He innovated, creating virtuoso pieces that were stylistically stylistically inspired by Islamic taste, while demonstrating total technical mastery of materials. As far as decors are concerned, we know that he owned a copy of Gustave Le Bon's La Civilisation des Arabes, published in 1884. Gallé drew his inspiration from Islamic models in glass, in glass, terracotta or metal, and never hesitated to mix his sources. Seljuk Persian illuminations were among his references. In 1884, at the eighth exhibition of the Union centrale des Arts décoratifs, where he achieved great success, Gallé submitted a notice to the jury including a paragraph entitled "Émaux opaques" ("Opaque enamels"). paragraph entitled "Émaux opaques associés aux couleurs à reflets avec adaptation au style persan". Mosque lamps were luxury objects, intended to be hung in the mosques and mausoleums of Egypt and Mamluk Syria. Produced from the 12th to the 14th century, they were very early collected by wealthy European connoisseurs, such as Auguste and Eugène Dutuit, who bequeathed to the Petit Palais in 1902 a mosque lamp with epigraphic decoration.