Le Musée de l’École de Nancy

This post should come with a "partial nudity" warning.  Art Nouveau artists were inspired by many lovely things such as flowers & women ...

Lillian :  Nancy is a wonderful place to see Art Nouveau and a visit to the Musée de l’École de Nancy is a delight for anyone interested in the style -
Audrey :  Or if you just like seeing beautiful things that have been beautifully made.


Lillian : Quite! It is lovely to see complete sets of furniture, with paintings, lamps, vases ... all presented in a natural way in the rooms of the house. 




Audrey : The painting you can see part of there is by Victor Prouvé - it is of 3 lovely ladies in soft, pretty dresses, painted in 1903.  The furniture is by Louis Majorelle, his Ensemble aux nénuphars (French for waterlilies) 1900.











Lillian : The details - the way the shapes of waterlily leaves and stems are suggested in the shapes of the legs, the turned up edges of the desk-top, the table ... just lovely!















Audrey : Detail of a chair - also by Louis Majorelle - Chaise Pavots (poppies), very elegant. 












Lillian :  This room - Salle a manger (dining room) by Eugène Vallin & Victor Prouvé  - was a trifle over-whelming!

The original room was somewhat larger so the beautiful painted ceiling has actually been cut down a little.  The light-fitting is gorgeous. 

And here is a close-up picture of the tea-set.













Audrey :  Of course, electric light was a wonderful new thing when these Art Nouveau artistes were creating & designing.  They even found wonderfully clever ways to use light bulbs - 


isn't that delightful?  I wanted to stand under that light and wait for everyone to give me kisses - but our people wanted to see everything in the museum ...

Lillian :  And there is so much to see!  we can only show you a tiny amount here.
This lovely set of lights in glass gourds is by Emile Gallé, 1902.
The foliage is made of iron, and I think that would look wonderful under a verandah.

Lillian : The Art Nouveau movement held that everything can & should be made beautiful (as well as practical).  So a lovely painting is put into a gorgeous frame - with a dragonfly perhaps.

 




Audrey :  Even a bath-tub!  Not merely a place to get clean but an amazing grotto complete with water plants and nymph!

And all done in ceramic tiles.







Audrey : This fire-screen is inspired by the ocean with glass 'waves' and metal 'sea-weed''.


Lillian : I think that is what the French call verre américain - opalescent glass, invented by Tiffany & Co.

Audrey :  Let's see more lovely lead-light work...  The top of a display cabinet with pretty birds.










Lillian : A window with a lovely lady in a garden - hope she is using sun-screen! 

Pretty peacocks and curling fern-fronds in the corners.

Audrey : The lady has a kitty - and kitty wants a cuddle.

Lillian :  This very pretty window with roses is on the landing of the stairs.







Audrey : And this massive window - almost 3.5m long - is by Jacques Gruber 1904 (see our previous post for more of Monsieur Gruber's wonderful works in glass).

Some detail - the irises are of verre américain.

Audrey : Let's see more lovely glass - this time in vases. 

Lillian : Ah - some of the vases are displayed near a window so the sunlight shines through them.  This fern frond vase caught our stylist's eye. 

Audrey :  Downstairs there is a collection of glass-work by Emile Gallé

the colour in this vase is stunning.

This is called Ipoméa et Phalènes, it was in the Exposition universelle de Paris in 1900 but then the base was also of glass.  It seems that it had an accident back then and was given a new bronze base.        The moths have been applied by a marqueterie technique (see here for info).

Lillian :  Here is some more marquetry, the more common sort - in timber.  Some very delicate insects.

 

Lillian : And a delightful trinket box with tulips and a moth - by Emile Gallé.  Those Art Nouveau artists designed and made everything!

 

Lillian : In our next post we will show you the lovely gardens of this museum.  But now we'll leave you with some details from a large painting that delighted our stylist.  Unfortunately we don't know who painted this, our photographer couldn't find a signature and it is not in the big book our people bought from the Musée.

It shows women working at all sorts of textiles - here we see 2 ladies hand sewing and the lady bent over the tambour frame is busy embroidering or beading.









In the LH corner there is a lady making lace - bobbin (or pillow) lace Dentelle au Fuseau.  She is using a pillow with a roller (for making long lengths of lace) the French call this a carreau traditionnel and her bobbins don't have the beads (or spangles) found on English bobbins - European lace-makers use wooden bobbins of different shapes (like these) - no beads.

Nancy - Art Nouveau Windows & Crème de Violette

Lillian :  We did, of course, go to the musée de l'Ecole de Nancy and we'll show you photos of that marvellous place in our next post.  In this post, we are going to show you some things we saw on the way to the Museum.

Audrey :  Because there is so much lovely Art Nouveau in Nancy that it doesn't all fit into a museum - it is all over the place!  
Lillian :  Quite - and lovely coloured glass, lead-light windows are quite noticeable examples of Everyday Art Nouveau in Nancy.
Audrey : Most of these windows are 'fan-lights' - small windows over the main door of the building.

Lillian : It is difficult to photograph windows from the outside, in daylight - the colours in the glass are actually much prettier.  For example, this lovely design with 2 blue flowers, had a sweet contrast in the colours of the backgrounds - pistacchio green behind the flowers, pretty mauve round the edge ...

Audrey : There was a row of very similar buildings - all had fan-lights with this design of 3 petaled flowers but they were done in different colours - here are 2 examples.














Audrey : And here are those 3 petaled flowers again - but this time as panels in a door.  The centers of these flowers look just like lollies!  (you can click on the photos to see them larger).

 

3 flowers

 Lillian : The shape of a fan-light window is ideal for a design of 3. 

3 branches of blue things

3 Gorgeous Red Orchids

 

Audrey :  More lovely red flowers - this window was on a corner.

  Lillian : I'm not sure what sort of flowers those are but at the bottom of the windows  -  

I think those are honeysuckle flowers.

Audrey : Another red flower - very elegant.

Lillian : And these pale blue 'clouds' are probably l'ombrelles flowers (see our last post for more info).

Audrey : Someone had their initials done in lead-light glass - I wonder what their name was ... let's see, perhaps Geneviève St-Maman?

Lillian : One more lovely lead-light window - Blossom, Butterflies and a Birdie.

We call these birds Swallows

Audrey : Which is "gulp" quite odd - in French they are l'hirondelle. 

 

Lillian : I think we might have taken the wrong bus to the Musée de l'Ecole de Nancy because we did have to walk quite a long way - and it was rather hot so this street sign seemed quite apt.

Supper - lovely olives, herbed cheese, grapes...

Audrey : Ah, but after the Museum, we did a little shopping and had a nice supper in our hotel room - and - well - um - perhaps you had a little too much to drink that evening Lillian. 

 Lillian :  Oh - the Crème de Violette.  It is such a pretty purple colour, it smells and tastes like pretty violets ...

Even in a plastic cup it is a gorgeous colour

Kir Violette - with some bubbly

 Lillian : I think that I forgot that it is also an alcohol. 

Audrey :  Poor thing - you weren't quite yourself the next morning. 

Nancy - Art Nouveau Architecture

Lillian :  Nancy is a great place to see Art Nouveau architecture, art, glass-work etc
Audrey :  It had its own 'School' - The École de Nancy
Lillian :  Yes, there is a wonderful museum and you can go on guided walks.  Which we did but in this post we thought we would show you some of the not-so-famous, not in the guide books, Art Nouveau delights that we spotted on our rambles around Nancy.

Audrey : This large building has a fern frond motif.
Lillian :  Well, Art Nouveau often took inspiration from nature and the École de Nancy was especially notable for the use of botanical motifs. 

Audrey: I think the people in Nancy really loved their gardens.

Lillian : Quite probably.  The Fern Frond Building also has a square tower and we saw quite a lot of those on Art Nouveau buildings.

Audrey :  The architects signed their buildings and we've tried to find out more about Monsieur Deon without much success. 

Lillian :  Here is the door, very decorated.

Wrought Iron Balcony - fern fronds with fruit & leaves

Audrey :  Let's look at that lovely ironwork

Fanlight over door - metalwork looks like Maidenhair Fern

Brass handle - lovingly polished & can you see the beetle?

Audrey : Ooo beetles - I like them best when they are not flying into my hair!  But Art Nouveau artists were quite fond of all insects ... those long antennae can be made to curl in a pretty way.

More lovely ironwork from this building

Audrey : Let's see some other Art Nouveau buildings.

Lillian : When you are in an older area, it is a good idea to 'Look Up'  - especially where there are shops, the ground level or rez de chaussée is often modernised but if you look up, you are often rewarded with lovely architectural details. 


Audrey : Now that was a shop being renovated ... new gutter & downpipe but the top floor was still occupied by pigeons!

Art Deco mosaic tile detail

Lillian : Art Nouveau style sitting next to the Art Deco - perhaps the upper floors were built or decorated later but perhaps not.  Our stylist says that it is common enough with the clothing of the 1920s & 30s - like the beaded 'flapper dresses' - to find motifts from both 'Arts' sitting side by side. 

The lovely lead-light window is very Nouveau and would look even better from the inside - mauve birds and yellow orchids framing a lattice of green glass.

Audrey :  The wood surround is carved with poppy flowers - and here is a detail.

Lillian :  Another shop - the rez de chaussée made modern - but look up! 



Audrey :  Even with the distracting reflections those sinuous lines are fabulous!

Lillian : This is the Magasins Vaxelaire et Pignot, built in 1901 by Emile André & Eugène Vallin.

Some furniture that was designed for this shop is now in the Musée d'Orsay.

Lillian : We've a policy to respect peoples' privacy - the figures you can see in this window are mannequins.




Audrey :  They're just dummies!   But let us show you a close-up of those fabulous peacock tails.  We think they are made of copper.

Lillian : Here is another shop window found by looking up - again this shows a blend of Art Nouveau and Art Deco.  Wonder if this was originally a music shop or music school. 










Lillian : This shop-front was in a side street and this building shows another characteristic of Art Nouveau architecture - it is asymmetrical and the details are slightly different for each level.



Audrey : Just like an Air and Variations in music.
Here is a close up of the balcony on the deuxième étage.

 












Audrey : And the one above it on the troisième étage.
 




Lillian : This building was designed by Emile André for Henri Camal, who was a manufacturer of straw hats - so the building was a shop, workroom and residence.



Audrey : Our last building for this post of Art Nouveau finds is also quite asymmetrical and has lots of lovely curves.  It is known as the Immeuble Margot (Margot building), it dates from 1906 and was designed by Eugène Vallin.



Here is a close-up of the balcony on the 3rd floor (that's the troisième étage).  Can you see the curly iron tendrils just above the stone sides?
 






 





 Lillian : The flowers up the top are very beautiful - not sure what they represent, possibly datura.  But notice the delicate 'bracts' on the window frames, the elegant lines curving in slightly above the flowers, the way the flowers are 'held' by that band over the stem.  Such lovely attention to detail.






Audrey :  No wonder Art Nouveau is such a popular style.  In our next post we'll show photos of some better known Art Nouveau buildings in Nancy.