Style Art Nouveau / Ref.14746
Émile GALLÉ, Ornamental Dish With A Monkey Climbing Among Flowers
Dimensions
Height 4'' 10cm
diameter: 14'' ⅛ 36cm
Origin:
France, 19th century
This highly original polychrome enamel ceramic dish featuring a monkey on a flowering branch was created by Émile Gallé, based on a model designed around 1878-1880.
Considered the founding father of Art Nouveau, Émile Gallé took over the factory founded by his father and gave it significant impetus, which he supported throughout his life with ever-renewed creativity, of which this dish is emblematic.
One of its edges features a pronounced relief with large, colorful, blooming flower corollas, while the flat part of the dish is adorned with a monkey climbing a tree, about to grasp the berries it covets.
This piece is a variation on Émile Gallé's crescent moon dishes with varied decorations, of which the Musée d'Orsay holds a preparatory drawing.
Émile Gallé created another dish based on the same model, also adorned with large flowers and a greedy monkey, which is now housed in the Musée de Nancy.