The Journal of Australian Ceramics Vol 51 No 3 November 2012

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Co llection Emile Galle: artist, activist, herborist, ecologist Patsy Hely discusses a favourite work from the ceramics collection at the NGA I first saw this handsome Emile Galle vase at the National Gallery of Australia (NGA) when I moved to Canberra in late 2001; it's still on display and I've had many opportunities to consider it over this time. Through this process of looking and thinking, I've found myself drawn into Galle's oeuvre and have come to a new appreciation of his work in glass and wood as well, work I'd previously thought of as gaudy and over-produced. Galle's ceramics have attracted less critical attention and esteem than his work in other materials and overall his output in this area is uneven. His work in glass, where he utilised nature less as decorative schema and more as an overall conceptual motif, is particularly inventive. Here he took advantage of not just form and surface to express ideas, but built up colour and image throughout the glass matrix with the result that some of his glass forms suggest entire ecological complexes, mini worlds in themselves. But there are outstanding examples of his work in ceramics and the NGA vase is one. At almost 45 cm tall, the vase has a strong vertical presence accentuated by the verticality of the plant forms floating - hovering almost - over its surface. The earthenware form appears to have been made in a mold because it has the well-delineated surface that comes from compression of clay particles against a plaster surface. The form is organic, tree-like, with striated texture suggestive of bark, the clay light and the tin glaze smooth and cream coloured. The imagery, hand-painted with finely rendered detail, is described in the NGA catalogue as 'painted underglaze decoration '!, though to me its richness and intensity suggests onglaze enamel. The vase is inscribed 'E. GalielNancy', though the extent of Galle's participation in its production is not clear. Describing his glassworking process in 1889, and presumably it was similar for ceramics, he wrote: My personal involvement consists above all in devising ideas for glass that are both sublime or tender, of carefully composing friendly or tragic faces for it, of assembling the different elements, of preparing in advance the realisation of my future works, of matching the technique to the preconceived work, of balancing the risks between success and failure, whilst carrying out the decisive operation that would have been called the main work. 2 The plant depicted on the vase is almost identical to a plant shown in a design, Papyrus sur fond nuage (papyrus on cloud background) used in his Service flora f3 manufactured around 1881 . Although usually identified with Egypt, papyrus grows in parts of France and its botanical, illustration-like treatment, when translated onto ceramic form, suggests it was drawn from life. The marks that ad as clouds in the design on paper are also on the vase, where they further model and accentuate the barklike striations. But papyrus is a freshwater reed found usually in damp or swampy areas and these cloud marks on the vase also suggest, especially when picked out by the gallery lighting, the glinting of sun on water. Lit like this, the motif turns the bark striations to ripples and the papyrus branches appear to dance over a gently lapping watercourse. In just that one motif then, water, air and land are all indirectly yet cleverly represented . 102 THE JOURNAL OF AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS NOVEMBER 2012
Emile Galle Nancy, France 1846-1904 Vase, 1879 - 89 Nancy. france Dec",at"'" Arts and DesIgn C",amlC earthenware with painted underglaze dec"'atlOll Prllnary lme: inscnbed on underWe E. GaIIelNancy h.44.9cm. w.2Ocm, d.22.6cm Purchased 1988 Accession No: NGA 88 1504
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The Journal of AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS
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Conten ts Volume S13 November 2012
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Contributors Susan Frost completed
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All things digital Come look! Try t
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Award Feature The 2012 Sidney Myer
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The Journal of Australian Ceramics Vol 51 No 3 November 2012

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