Arkitektur i sekelskiftets Nancy

Abstract

Summary How was it possible for an aesthetic movement that was not dependent on Paris to grow up in Lorraine at the turn of the century? Émile Gallé, whose father Charles was an innovator in the art of glass and ceramics, chanced to be born there and this is also true of other artists belonging to this circle. Louis Majorelle, the Daum brothers, Eugène Vallin, Victor Prouvé, Émile André, Henri Gutton, all came from families traditionally active in the arts and crafts or as artisanbuilders. After undergoing secondary education in Paris they all chose to work in their native province despite the national and international success they had achieved. In 1901 they were among the founders of the École de Nancy, l'Alliance Provinciale des Industries d'Art, the aim of which was to bring about a renaissance in the arts and crafts and in the art industry. Their key motto was ‘Unity in Art’. As their motif and structural principle they used lifelike reproductions of the plants that grow in the forests of Lorraine. Gallé, the main source of inspiration and the leader of the group, introduced the oriental, principally Japanese, element that was to be a distinctive feature of their work. What was to become a most important centre of the arts and crafts in France now began to grow up in Nancy and, together with some architects, it created an architectural style that paid poetic homage to the forests and meadows of Lorraine. Among the leading exponents of the Nancy School of architecture were Eugène Vallin, Émile André, Lucien Weissenburger, Henri Gutton, Joseph Hornecker and Georges Biet. A look at some of the many Art Nouveau buildings in the town will show how collaboration between architects and highly skilled artisans produced new forms of artistic expression based on vegetative ornamentation and the local building tradition with medieval features. Compared with the Art Nouveau architecture of Paris, the Nancy School, which developed approximately five years later, is more traditional, serious, lifelike. It is intimate, picturesque in nature, and is closer to Gothic than to Baroque. At the same time it is a protagonist of humanist values: it conveys a deep feeling for nature and the distinctive character of the region‐one can sense the pleasure the artisans took in their work and the presence of a tradition stretching right back to the spirit and style of building of the Middle Ages.