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bjbj This is a bowl with the decoration of an insect by Emile Gall . It is called The
Dragonfly . He was apprenticed in his father s factory where his father produced decorative
glass and ceramics. Gall apprenticed there and eventually took over the business and
not only made it a successful business but turned the manufacture of art glass in Nancy
into a flourishing industry. Gall was not just a smart business man, however. He was
also a poet and he was a passionate horticulturist. You can see it in the painting shown of Gall
in this case. That he is show with plants and trees around him in the kind of impassioned
activity of designing one of his vases. The quote that you see next to it that says, our
roots are in the depths of the woods, on the edge of the springs, on the mosses, that was
inscribed on the doors of his studio. So, Gall was very much enamored of and in love
with the natural world. And you ll see on this dragonfly coupe he used a kind of decoration
that was fairly scandalous for the time. A huge insect. What would made Gall think that
an insect, especially a dragonfly, which can be kind of scary when they get large be such
an interesting topic for a vase? But this is what Gall s work was about. It was about
looking at the natural world and bringing the beauty of the natural world into glass
in all kinds of ways. So not only did he look at insects but also at trees and flowers and
we can see this interest in the natural world throughout his work. These vases are characteristic
of a style that we call art nouveau, which means new art in French. It is very typical
of turn of the century. You have art nouveau coming into fashion about 1880 and going out
of style going out of fashion right at the beginning of World War I in 1914. The characteristics
of the art nouveau style are the interest in the natural world, elegant flowing curves
that you see throughout the decoration, and also interest in all different kinds of colors
and techniques. h5)N h~Wv h~Wv h5)N urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags City urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags
place WrightDC Normal.dot WrightDC Microsoft Word 10.0 The Corning Museum of Glass Title
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