Jessica M. Dandona - Nature and the Nation in Fin-De-Siecle France: The Art of Emile Galle and the Ecole De Nancy

Nature and the Nation in Fin-de-Sicle France

By the time of his death in 1904, critics, arts reformers, and government officials were near universal in their praise of Art Nouveau designer Emile Gall (18461904), whose works they described as the essence of French design. Many even went so far as to argue that the artists creations could reinvigorate Frances fading arts industries and help restore its economic prosperity by defining a modern style to represent the nation. For fin-de-sicle viewers, Galls works constituted powerful reflections on the idea of national belonging, modernity, and the role of the arts in political engagement. While existing scholarship has largely focused on the artists innovative technical processes, a close analysis of Galls works brings to light the surprisingly complex ways in which his fragile creations were imbricated in the political turmoil that characterized fin-de-sicle France. Examining Galls works inspired by Japanese art, his patriotically inflected designs for the Universal Exposition of 1889, his artistic manifesto in support of Dreyfus created in 1900, and finally, his late works that explore the concept of evolution, this book examines how Gall returns again and again to the question of national identity as the central issue in his work.

Jessica M. Dandona is Associate Professor of Liberal Arts at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. She earned her PhD in the History of Art from the University of California at Berkeley. Recent publications include contributions to Picturing Evolution and Extinction (2016) and to Place and Locality in Modern France (2014).

The Histories of Material Culture and Collecting, 17001950

Series Editor: Stacey J. Pierson
University of London

The Histories of Material Culture and Collecting, 17001950 provides a forum for the broad study of object acquisition and collecting practices in their global dimensions. The series seeks to illuminate the intersections between material culture studies, art history, and the history of collecting. It takes as its starting point the idea that objects both contributed to the formation of knowledge in the past and likewise contribute to our understanding of the past today. The human relationship to objects has proven a rich field of scholarly inquiry, with much recent scholarship either anthropological or sociological rather than art historical in perspective. Underpinning this series is the idea that the physical nature of objects contributes substantially to their social meanings, and therefore that the visual, tactile, and sensual dimensions of objects are critical to their interpretation. This series therefore seeks to bridge anthropology and art history, sociology and aesthetics.

For a full list of titles in this series, please visit www.routledge.com/series/ASHSER2128

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Principles of Dress
Rebecca Houze

William Hunters World
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Materializing Gender in Eighteenth-Century Europe
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Making, Selling, Consuming
Alison Fitzgerald

Private Collecting, Exhibitions, and the Shaping of Art History in London
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Nature and the Nation in Fin-de-Sicle France
The Art of Emile Gall and the Ecole de Nancy
Jessica M. Dandona

The Art of Emile Gall and the Ecole de Nancy

Jessica M. Dandona

First published 2017
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2017 Jessica M. Dandona

The right of Jessica M. Dandona to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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ISBN: 978-1-4724-6261-9 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-17611-6 (ebk)

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For my courageous and extraordinary mother, Gaydona N. Dandona, who taught me to love.

Plates

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This book began as a dissertation and since its inception has evolved in many ways, some of them quite unexpected. I owe a great debt of gratitude to my advisor, Darcy Grimaldo-Grigsby, whose strength, dedication, and integrity guided my way at every turn. I am also grateful to the Kress Foundation, whose travel grant permitted me to conduct research both in Nancy and at the Corning Museum of Glass. In Nancy, I would like to thank Bernadine Otter and Valrie Thomas of the Muse de lEcole de Nancy and the staff of the Bibliothque municipale de Nancy, the Archives dpartementales de Meurthe-et-Moselle, and the Muse Lorrain for granting me access to a wealth of documents and images relevant to my research. I am also indebted to Franois Le Tacon for generously sharing with me his work on Gall, which extends over several decades and is inspiring in its depth and rigor, and to Bernard Ponton for his kind assistance.

In Paris, I was fortunate enough to enjoy access to the Bibliothque nationale de France, the Bibliothque Jacques Doucet, the Bibliothque Forney, and the archives of the Muse dOrsay and the Muse des Arts dcoratifs. In Corning, the staff of the Rakow Library was instrumental in allowing me to study numerous examples of rare and fascinating studies, sketches, and other documents related to Galls working process.

During the writing of this book, I profited from the insightful comments of colleagues at several conferences. These include Objects in Revolt: Material Culture Symposium for Emerging Scholars, hosted by the Winterthur Museum and Country Estate; the international symposium Aesthetics and Techniques of Lines between Drawing and Writing, organized by the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florence, Italy, in 2011; and the Association of Art Historians Annual Conference, held in Milton Keynes, England in 2012. I would also like to thank Anne M. Wagner, Kris Belden-Adams, and Thomas Haakenson, who read and commented on earlier versions of this work.

This book could not have been written without the support and encouragement of my colleagues at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. My sincerest thanks go to the chair of the Liberal Arts Department, Gerald Ronning, for his steady commitment to this project. I would be remiss if I did not also acknowledge the staff of the MCAD libraryAmy Naughton-Becker and Allan A. Kohl in particularfor their willingness to lend their time and expertise in tracking down elusive images and sources. Thank you also to the Faculty Senate, which generously awarded me a course release that greatly facilitated the writing process. Above all, I would like to thank Karen Wirth, Vice President of Academic Affairs, for the support and encouragement that made this book possible.