Émile Gallé "Ombelle" Side Chair
Regular price
$22,500
Gallé first designed the Ombelle chairs to great critical acclaim at the 1900 Exposition Universelle. The chairs were inspired by the umbellifer family. The species in this family, including the Giant Hogweed and poison hemlock, were favored by Art Nouveau artists for its simultaneous beauty and toxicity, a natural incarnation of the femme fatale archetype. Flowers, like the giant hogweed, were one of great significance to the Art Nouveau masters, symbolizing regrowth, rebirth, and regeneration, and so, even though they can technically classified as a weed, flowers like these were honored with a beautiful place of privilege in many a masterpiece during the Art Nouveau period. Over the next four years, he continued refining the original design. This particular version was created for the living room of Belgian engineer Édouard Hannon’s Brussels mansion, with the original design drawing housed in the Musée d’Orsay. The backrest features the silhouette of the Ombelle flower, with two delicate stems extending to connect with the seat. A symmetrical frieze of Ombelle flowers encircles the seat, which is finished with rattan caning on top.
Item #: F-21817
Artist: Émile Gallé
Country: France
Circa: 1902
Dimensions: 37" height, 18.125" width, 18.25" depth.
Materials: Walnut, Cane
Signed: chair leg incised "Gallé"
Literature: Yvonne Brunhammer, Alain Blondel, and Yves Plantin, Art Nouveau Belgium France, exh. cat. Institute for the Arts, Rice University, Houston and the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, 1976, p. 225 Alastair Duncan, The Paris Salons 1895-1914, Volume 3, New York, 1996, p. 232
Item #: F-21817
Artist: Émile Gallé
Country: France
Circa: 1902
Dimensions: 37" height, 18.125" width, 18.25" depth.
Materials: Walnut, Cane
Signed: chair leg incised "Gallé"
Literature: Yvonne Brunhammer, Alain Blondel, and Yves Plantin, Art Nouveau Belgium France, exh. cat. Institute for the Arts, Rice University, Houston and the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, 1976, p. 225 Alastair Duncan, The Paris Salons 1895-1914, Volume 3, New York, 1996, p. 232
Gallé discusses the particular satisfaction he has found in the application of certain plant forms. The umbellifer Heraclaeum Mantegazzium, popularly called Giant Hogweed, first used by him in furniture design in 1894, became a particular favourite, and, certainly, this plant lent itself readily to elegant abstractions. Giant Hogweed inspired cabinets, vitrines, tables, chairs, even bedroom suites. One critic, commenting on the chaise aux ombelles of 1902, finds an element of Japanese inspiration in this design, drawing a parallel between the form of the chair back and certain Japanese tsuba or sword-guards. Others see Giant Hogweed as a symbol of local pride, for the plant grew in abundance around Nancy. One may, however, uncover less obvious and more morbid an explanation for the powerful attraction it held for Gallé. Another plant of the same family la grande Cigüe', Conium maculatum, is the source of the poison that filled Socrates' deadly cup, hemlock.
Gallé discusses the particular satisfaction he has found in the application of certain plant forms. The umbellifer Heraclaeum Mantegazzium, popularly called Giant Hogweed, first used by him in furniture design in 1894, became a particular favourite, and, certainly, this plant lent itself readily to elegant abstractions. Giant Hogweed inspired cabinets, vitrines, tables, chairs, even bedroom suites. One critic, commenting on the chaise aux ombelles of 1902, finds an element of Japanese inspiration in this design, drawing a parallel between the form of the chair back and certain Japanese tsuba or sword-guards. Others see Giant Hogweed as a symbol of local pride, for the plant grew in abundance around Nancy. One may, however, uncover less obvious and more morbid an explanation for the powerful attraction it held for Gallé. Another plant of the same family la grande Cigüe', Conium maculatum, is the source of the poison that filled Socrates' deadly cup, hemlock.
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