Studio: international art (28.1903)

Emile Galle

of his day with two new processes, by means of one every fleeting aspect of nature which can be trans-
or the other of which were produced all the examples lated into material form, and happens to take his
of his work here reproduced. To these the names fancy. Sometimes he incorporates in his glass
have been given of the "Patina" and "Crystal Mar- what the Germans call a leid-motiv—that is to say,
quetry" processes. The former, as M. Galle has him- he engraves on it some well-known literary quota-
self explained, includes all the results obtained by tion. The clouds which roll across the infinite
the action produced on the dough-like mass of spaces of heaven, the translucent green waves of
molten glass in accordance with their chemical con- the sea, beneath which spread the floating, tress-
stituents, the more or less prolonged duration of the like branches of the flowers of the deep, the azure
operation of fusing, the chemical constituents of beams of the rising moon as they caress the sur-
the atmosphere 01 the furnace, the nature of the face of the ocean, the russet leaves whirling in
emanations from it, etc., etc. The transparency the autumn wind, the mysterious gloom of the
varies according to the deposits, or according to forest depths, every fugitive mood of nature is
what may be called a sort of superficial devitrifica- caught and fixed in the ethereal forms evoked by
tion, resulting in a chemical deposit of an ophelic the genius of this remarkable artist,
character, differing in its properties of dilation from The second of the new processes, that of "Crystal
those of the original nucleus. It is this matrix which Marquetry," enables the artist to multiply still more
is utilised as a new basis for ornamentation. his effects of colour. He is no longer content with

It is also, to a certain extent, due to accidental superposing in his designs one engraved layer upon
combinations in the preliminary tempering of the another, although by its means he has obtained
clay that M. Galle obtains his effects resembling very excellent results; he now introduces into the
textile fabrics or skins, as well as the more subtle molten vitreous mass, when still in the condition of
resemblances to fogs, snow or rain. In a word, paste, actual dabs of colour, very much as an
with rare and happy skill he catches pretty well artist does upon his canvas, and inserts in these

dabs lamella? of glass, arranging
them like the pieces of a stained
glass window — truly anything
but an easy process, for it necessi-
tates a series of successive
heatings, in the course of which
a great deal depends upon the
workman to whom the task of
applying them is entrusted. It
is not merely a case for manual
dexterity ; he has to watch most
carefully the effects obtained by
the action of the furnace; he
has often, in fact, to take the
initiative, and he himself becomes
for the nonce a creator, in the
same sense as did each one of
the weavers of Merton Abbey, to
whom William Morris left the
choice of the colours to be used
in his tapestries.

It may, therefore, indeed be
claimed for M. Galle that he has
widened the field even of such
masters of the craft as the glass-
makers of Murano and of Bohe-
mia ; he has not merely de-
veloped the processes already
in use, he has discovered and

i by e. galle utilised entirely new ones. The

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