WINTER VIBES
Emile GALLé

Emile Gallé, born in 1846, pioneer of Art Nouveau, this movement which advocated the return of the curve in the face of the exaggeration of industrialization. At the door of his studio his motto "My root is deep in the woods" summarizes his thought "Our roots are in the depths of the woods, among the mosses, around the sources".

Son of Fanny Reinemer, daughter of crystal merchants, and Charles Gallé, who would develop his wife's business. Emile will make it a worldwide success thanks to his talent and hard work and will be rewarded with countless gold medals and the Legion of Honor in 1900. A female designer in his workshop: Rose Wild, who will receive a bronze medal at the Universal Exhibition that same year.

Loving father of four daughters, whom he calls "petites galettes", he is an early environmentalist and a humanist. He stands up for human rights and actively supports Albert Dreyfus, despite enduring a boycott from part of the society.

He died in 1904 of an illness caused by overwork, some say, poisoning from heavy metals used in glass making, say others, leukemia anyway.

The Art Nouveau period will be short and the stylized motifs of Art Deco will succeed the "noodle style", as its detractors call it because of the numerous arabesques, from the onset of the 1st World War.

Emile Gallé nowadays present on our festive tables through the bottles of Perrier-Jouët for which he designed the expensive white anemones, ten times the price of an ordinary bottle ...