Featured A French Art Nouveau Stained Glass Artist/Ceramiste?

Please point me in the right part of the forum if I am in the wrong part.

I have a little dilemma, and, unusually, google draws a complete blank! I have bought a little French Art-Nouveau vase created by Louis Jac-Galland - born sometime before 1891... and disappeared 1922/3, the celebrated stained glass artist who has windows in a number of places in Paris and elsewhere.

This humble vessel is well marked (see photo), but I cannot find any other pieces by him, or any information about his ceramic experience.

So where does the ceramic work come in? Who did he learn from? Does this particular piece demonstrate his obviously expanding knowledge of Art-Nouveau?

There are many questions here but can anyone give me ANY information at all about this seemingly enigmatic figure? Thanks for reading this.

 

Did you find this? He's identified here as a ceramicist in 1896.

https://books.google.com/books?id=eadQAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA9-PA60&lpg=RA9-PA60&dq=jac-galland+ceramique&source=bl&ots=90DveTxzyd&sig=ACfU3U1Yt5T9PsafliRTM9yOM_hfOopYNQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwig98P06LzlAhUNP30KHYEJBTIQ6AEwAHoECAkQAQ#v=onepage&q=jac-galland ceramique&f=false

And exhibiting here around the same time.

https://books.google.com/books?id=0...AEwA3oECAcQAQ#v=onepage&q=jac galland&f=false

Debora

 

From a 2013 French auction, lot #1587 (Lot of 3 enamelled stoneware vases, one with inscription L. JAC Galland height 15, 15, 17 cm):








~Cheryl

 

Thanks for the info Debora. I don't know how to access the info ... is it there already - like is it just a line of text sighting him as a ceramiste (not vitraux)? Are both the references the same thing? I am sorry I just don't understand what I am looking at - or how to read the context as to why he should be there. What is stranger still is that the first reference is to do with a patent - that's right isn't it? Sorry - I'm a bit thick!!

 

... And thanks Cheryl! WOW 30 euros starting price for three art-nouveau vases ... I wonder if they sold - and for how much - and what did they look like? But thanks for this - at least there are a few bits of info out there after all ... great sleuthing you two!

 

I have emailed Constancy and asked if they can give me any info and pics ... lets see!

 

I think we have a misunderstanding. vitraux/vitrail means stained glass as in church windows. he was a master glazier that made the decoration with enamelling, which is technically a ceramic process.

 

Hi Touchdry,
I just love the glaze on your vase. I mean just love the glaze.
greg

 

Beautiful, Touchdry.

 

No misunderstanding, it seems... He was known as a master glass maker...
https://vpah-auvergne-rhone-alpes.fr/ressource/vitrail-casino-grand-cercle-aix-les-bains
Touchdry is researching if there is documentation on his ceramic works, which he can't find

 

Actually Fid, you could be right - if you are saying he was a painter on glass ... as opposed to a cutter/shaper of glass. Because the French Pottery forum have just given me a census for 1892 which gives his occupation as a 'Peinture Vitraux'. But, as kyratango has said, I am trying to find ANY information about his ceramic 'escapades'. I have a feeling it has something to do with his father, Pierre-Victor Galland ... who happened to be one of the tutors at l'Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris - Louis was one of his students. Perhaps there is something here - for instance I want to find out who was teaching ceramics between 1873-78 ... when Louis studied there. The sad thing is that the address on the vase is the same one mentioned in Louis-Jacques' bankruptcy in 1901 ... stay tuned!

 

The 1897 reference to Louis-Jacques being a glass maker may be an indication of his progress in the Parisian art scene and beyond. But as I have indicated above - four years later would see him lose everything (or whatever 'bankruptcy' means at the turn of the century) ... a further twenty odd years after that Louis-Jacques Galland will have 'disappeared' - never to be seen again!

 

The fascinating thing here is that 1896 and 1897 were bringing him closer to big trouble - ie bankruptcy ... it sounds like he bit off more than he could chew! I mean - did he file for a patent? What of? And if he did not then what was his part? Did it cost him? (I had dealings with filing a patent some years ago ... it cost a fortune - I am glad to say not mine! ... But it could have easily ruined me).
... He wasn't filing for a patent for a ceramic/glass glaze was he? (Just a thought ... Alphonse Cytere did in the early twenties ... look him up - notice any similarity with my little vase? Perhaps not!)

 

@Touchdry , I like the way you always share your thinking, we get to experience part of the process, wonderful, thanks.

 

Based on what Fid said (and not knowing French), I'm wondering if the bottom of the vase is indicating that Jac-Galland did the glaze decoration on it, but didn't actually make the vase itself?

 

Excellent point, Fig.

 

Except, I just thought of this: The stamp was put on the bottom before firing, while the clay was still wet. So maybe they made the whole thing, but the glaze was the more important part of the piece?

 

This is all very interesting. Does any of this fit? 1896 a book of patents records him as being a ceramicist (unfortunately I cant get hold of the book to get more info!). By 1901 the Gourgbauld address was where he had been running a business called "Jac-Galland" ... in that year he was declared bankrupt. I have no info on what his business actually was - but I am sure it included Stained Glass work, Decoration, and Ceramics. As Fid has said, it is possible that his skill was in decorating windows and perhaps ceramics - which does imply that he might have 'bought in' blanks and decorated them. Of course, this is all very subjective. Also, I am waiting for a french auction house that had three ceramics marked Galland up for sale ... if they deliver some pics I'll share them with you ...

 

Ah ... yes ... that puts paid to buying in blanks. So did he run a pottery in Gourgaud Avenue? Seems a bit unlikely ...