Large Galle Style Whimsical Lamp "les Coprins" Art Nouveau

A large French 20th century whimsical Art-Nouveau style mushroom molded glass lamp, after Émile Gallé's "Les Coprins". The three twisted and curved molded green glass mushroom stems surmounted with ruby-red glass shades, all raised from a brass base, circa: 1960-1970.

This beautiful reproduction of Gallés famous mushroom lamp, of which only three original models exits, were limited reproduced last century in France. The original was commissiones as part of the décor of a dining-room designed as a forest. One of the 1904 original lamps is currently at the Musée de L'Ecole de Nancy, in Nancy, France. Another one is currently at The Kitazawa Museum of Art, Nagano, Japan.

The original work, designed by Gallé at the very end of his life, is described as a table lamp intended for the corner of a sitting room. It is fashioned in the shape of the inky cap mushroom, a type of fungus that attains its full growth in one night and then wilts with the coming of the dawn. Here one sees the three stages of growth, proceeding from the first, when the cap is tightly shut, to the last, when it is fully opened. Three layers of glass are used to render the caps: an opaque, cream-colored layer is overlaid with transparent glass, which is then covered with reddish-brown. The surface of each cap is marked with lines. The depiction of the mushroom is based on close observation of the actual object and is quite naturalistic. When the lamp is lit, a brilliant, poisonous-looking red color rises to the surface. This huge mushroom, its life one great, short brush of energy, exerts a kind of strange, mysterious charm.

Émile Gallé  (8 May 1846 in Nancy – 23 September 1904 in Nancy) was a French artist and designer who worked in glass, and is considered to be one of the major innovators in the French Art Nouveau movement. He was noted for his designs of Art Nouveau glass art and Art Nouveau furniture, and was a founder of the École de Nancy or Nancy School, a movement of design in the city of Nancy, France.

Dimmenions:
height - 88 cm
width - 48 cm
depth - 47 cm