Nature as Symbol:
Gallé's MotifsIn the same manner of painters and sculptors, Gallé incorporated deeper meaning into his works through the motifs he chose to render. Gallé repeated the motif of the lifecycle across several works, such as in Bananier Sellette’s display of the banana tree’s multiple stages of bloom. Gallé’s motifs also include references to historical and current events and politics, as seen in his Le Rhin Table, and Symbolist poetry, from which he took quotes and embedded them into the marquetry. By incorporating these motifs that held profound meaning, Gallé moved his works beyond the role of being beautiful, functional objects. Like other artists of his time, Gallé endeavored to imbue his works with deeper meaning that could be unraveled by the viewer.
Figure 34: Émile Gallé, Étagère aux Ombellifères (also Les Ombellules étagère de salon) [Front], 1900-02. Walnut with marquetry panels, 151 x 67.5 x 47.3 cm. Musée des Beaux Arts, Reims.
Figure 35: Émile Gallé, Étagère aux Ombellifères (also Les Ombellules étagère de salon) [Left Side], 1900-02. Walnut with marquetry panels, 151 x 67.5 x 47.3 cm. Musée des Beaux Arts, Reims.
Figure 36: Émile Gallé, Étagère aux Ombellifères (also Les Ombellules étagère de salon) [Right Side], 1900-02. Walnut with marquetry panels, 151 x 67.5 x 47.3 cm. Musée des Beaux Arts, Reims.
Gallé’s Étagère aux Ombellifères (1900-02, Figures 34-36) shows different species within the same botanical family for which the shelf is named, Umbelliferae. Gallé carved and inlaid several of these plants that flower in a form reminiscent of an umbrella. The top of the bookshelf is crowned with three umbels of the same species, likely a type of parsley or wild carrot. The upper-most panel features three sea holly blossoms, recognizable for their central dome-shaped umbels and collar of spindly leaves.[1] Beneath, five additional sea holly blossoms carved from wood crown the next panel. This panel again features a flower that is either parsley or carrot, this time inlaid into a brightly toned wood that highlights the flower. Each section of the bookshelf is framed by ridged a stalk-like column.
The work also incorporates references to one of Gallé’s favorite Symbolist poets, a founder of the Symbolist movement, Émile Verhaeren. The top cabinet features doors inlaid with an excerpt from one of Verhaeren’s poem, entitled “The Shining Hours.” The inscription reads “The moment / is so beautiful / of Light / deep inside us in / our heart / Verhaeren.” The poem evokes a moment of stillness during the day, conjuring the idea of beautiful sunlight. By referencing poetry, Gallé was positioning his work as a parallel to poetry, a highly respected form of artistic expression. As a Symbolist, Gallé incorporated meaning and messages from his favorite Symbolist writers into his works, in a manner that was expected of fine artists, but went mostly unrecognized in decorative art. This ability of decorative arts to communicate ideas beyond aesthetic would have elevated the decorative arts above the dismissive attitude often directed towards it, and more closely aligns decorative arts with the contemporary expectations for art to convey something to its viewer. In a speech given at the Stanislas Academy on May 17, 1900, Gallé explained that he used nature in order to convey Symbolist messages. Gallé defined Symbolism as “the representation of something, usually abstract, by a conventional equivalent, a sign whose meaning is agreed among the initiated.”[2] He also noted, “it is always a matter of translating, of awakening an idea by an image.”[3] By aligning himself with the Symbolist movement, and by extension, poetry and literature, Gallé was positioning his work as fine art equivalent to poetry and literature. Moreover, by using this poetry in conjunction with bois des îles, Gallé was further refining the wood, in a mirroring of the civilizing mission.
Figure 37: Émile Gallé, Guéridon Sagittaire (Sagittarius Pedestal Table, also called Flèche d’eau or Watter Arrow), 1900. Sculpted walnut, marquetry in Ceylon lemon tree, ash, tamo ash, and rosewood. Musée de l’École de Nancy, Nancy.
Figure 38: Anonymous, La Flèche d’eau: table en mosaïque et boi, ca. 1900. Aristotype, 20.6 x 8.5 cm. Musée d’Orsay, Paris.
Gallé considered the life cycle to be a motif that would be readily recognized by its viewer, and that would therefore resonate with them. In his Guéridon Sagittaire (Sagittarius Pedestal Table, also called Flèche d’eau, or Water Arrow, 1900, Figures 37-38), Gallé applied the lifecycle motif to the Sagittaria latifolia, or arrowhead flower, which grows in shallow wetlands (Figure 39). The warm-toned table is made from various warm-toned tropical hardwoods: Ceylon lemon tree, ash, tamo ash- a rare species of ash- and rosewood. The table is supported by three legs that each terminate with the flower’s characteristic arrowhead-shaped leaf (Figure 40). The top of the table itself takes on the form of the arrowhead flower, a small, three petaled flower with a prominent round center (Figure 41). Between each petal, curving tendrils spring from the flower, approximating the sepals, or leaf-like petals, that emanate from the base of the flower head. The top is further adorned with a marquetry scene of two stems of Arrowhead flowers, and their distinctive three-pointed leaves. Each stem contains flowers at varying stages of bloom, from tightly closed buds to fully open blossoms, and flowers that have begun to wilt, their petals drooping or missing altogether. The motif of the lifecycle reflects Gallé’s philosophy of modern art as a regeneration inspired by nature. The table’s three delicate legs are braced in the middle by open-work curving forms, reminiscent of the fluid motion of a ripple of water. On top sits a carved flower, almost like a lily pad floating on water. This inclusion shows Gallé’s intimate familiarity with the flower, and its native habitat in the water. Gallé demonstrated knowledge of a diversity of plant life that informed his practice of marquetry which drew on that same diversity of materials. Moreover, Gallé’s artistic practice was directly reliant on a diversity of trees grown in areas that France colonized, and on his knowledge of the flora and fauna that adorned his furniture.
Figure 39: Carolyn Fannon, Sagittaria latifolia, 2012. Digital photograph. Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, University of Texas, Austin.
Figure 40: Comparison of Sagittaria latifolia leaves. Left: Émile Gallé, Guéridon Sagittaire (Sagittarius Pedestal Table, also called Flèche d’eau or Watter Arrow) [Detail], 1900. Sculpted walnut, marquetry in Ceylon lemon tree, ash, tamo ash, and rosewood. Musée de l’École de Nancy, Nancy. Right: Sally and Andy Wasowski, Sagittaria latifolia [Detail], 1987. Photograph. Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, University of Texas, Austin.
Figure 41: Émile Gallé, Guéridon Sagittaire (Sagittarius Pedestal Table, also called Flèche d’eau or Watter Arrow) [Detail of Top], 1900. Sculpted walnut, marquetry in Ceylon lemon tree, ash, tamo ash, and rosewood. Musée de l’École de Nancy, Nancy.
Gallé’s works at the 1900 Exposition Universelle were undoubtedly pieces that displayed mastery of skill in woodwork, but they also showed Gallé’s desire to be seen as both a fine artist and a craftsman. In using bois des îles, Gallé aligned himself with the civilizing mission of the Third Republic, seen to colonize “savage” lands with the effort of refining them in an image of France. Gallé saw himself as doing something similar in his art, taking natural, raw, unrefined materials, and working with them to make them something delicate, refined, and beautiful.