The Studio yearbook of decorative art (1908)

FRENCH ARCHITECTURE AND DECORATION

Exhibition particularly, one noticed, amidst much excellent work,
an outrageous manifestation of the modern style—a style bizarre,
pretentious, abnormal, overwrought, inadequate to any practical
object. This was a dismal period for those of us who considered
that the primordial qualities of our race were, above all, order,
logic, sobriety, precision, grace, and common sense. We shall never
found a new style—by which I do not mean a new principe, some
departure from antiquated repetitions — save by the invention of
lines, of decorative motifs, of combinations of colour in accord
with our great traditions, and harmonising with our national temper-
ament, which is essentially well-balanced. The necessity of being
logical and sober will never rob a free spirit of its originality.
On the contrary, that necessity imposes on an artist a discipline
and a method eminently favourable to the conception and to the
execution of a work of art.

It is the misapprehension of this essential rule—the want of
order and of proportion—which has set the French public in oppo-
sition to the modern style, and has created an infinitely regrettable
misunderstanding between the manufacturers and their patrons.

But this misunderstanding is about to disappear, and at the
present moment there are many amateurs who by their patronage
do much to encourage the innovators. The meuble de luxe and
the cheap furniture both have their supporters. The very abun-
dance of materials serves in the most absolute manner as a preventive
of an " article court" becoming an " article a"ensemble."

In connection with the new movement the town of Nancy
deserves special mention : it is by way of becoming a second capital
for our decorative art by reason of the keen rivalry existing between
its architects, and its decorative artists alike. In all this, Galle has
been a leading spirit. His glasswork is famous all the world over,
and his personal influence has played a considerable part in influencing
public taste, and in the artistic development of his pupils and emu-
lators. Of his successors the most prolific, the most interesting, and
at the same time the finest artist is M. Victor Prouve, and there are
others like M. Vallin, M. Gautier, M. Louis Majorelle, M. Hestaux
also deserving mention.

A special chapter would be required for those artists who
work in isolation, such as M. Georges Turck (F 11) at Lille and
M. Bigot (F 23) in Calvados. The latter understands the nature of
the different woods he uses, and the results which may be obtained
from them. He might, possibly, turn his attention more to the
colour and the polychrome combinations required by juxtaposed
substances, but his technique is nearly always perfect. In all he

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