Galle Art Glass in Russian museums

The collection of Galle Art Glass, which is now kept in the Hermitage Museum, is one of the largest in Russia and has 84 items. The glass vessels here are distinguished by the high artistic level of the exhibits, many of which are made in a single copy. The selection of things fully reflects the whole variety of technological and artistic techniques used by both Emile Galle and his followers.
The special status of the museum’s items is determined by the fact that it contributed to the formation in Russia of a fashion for the “Halle style”. They come from the famous Russian collections of decorative and applied art of the late 19th – early 20th century. The history of acquiring these masterpieces of artistic glassmaking is closely related to the political, economic and cultural relations between the two countries – Russia and France.
The earliest purchases of Halle’s works for Russian collections are associated with educational museums, in particular, Museum of the School of Technical Drawing of Baron A. L. Stieglitz in St. Petersburg. The school and the museum that existed with it were founded in 1878 with the money of the court banker and manufacturer, secret adviser Alexander Ludwigovich Stieglitz (1814-1884).

Museum of the Central School of Technical Drawing of Baron A. L. Stieglitz was the third,
founded in Russia, following the Museum of the Stroganov School of Technical Drawing in Moscow
(1864) and the Museum of the Imperial Society for the Encouragement of Arts in St. Petersburg (1870). Huge
the merit in the formation of his collections belongs to A. L. Stieglitz’s son-in-law, Alexander Alexandrovich Polovtsov (1832–1909). Together with his wife Nadezhda Mikhailovna (1843-1908), they were the honorary trustees of the school. A major industrialist, passionate collector, statesman and public figure, A.A. Polovtsov personally determined the collection policy of the museum.
When coloring his glass, Halle diversifies the combinations of different colors, opaque and transparent; sometimes performs some kind of decorative motive between two layers of glass, then soldered together; uses iridescence; paints with flaming tones, paints with metallic glimpse, etc. The consequence of all this is original and graceful compositions.”
Despite such a high assessment of Galle’s work, the museum in the following years bought only only three of his works. They all received one invoice dated September 27, 1900.
A much more important role in the spread of Halle laminated glass in Russia and the formation of a fashion for it was played by other works of the French master – those that adorned living quarters of Nicholas II and Alexandra Feodorovna in the Winter Palace.

The imperial couple lived in the Winter Palace from 1895 to 1904. Before they move here from the Anichkov Palace, the court architect A.F. Krasovsky (1848-1918) was engaged in the preparation of the interiors of personal chambers with the assistance of architects N.I. Kramskoy (1863-1938) and S. A. Danini (1867-1942). However, as evidenced by the emperor’s diary, the future inhabitants were not only interested in the progress of work, but took an active part in the development of projects and the choice of finishing materials. The final touches in creating residential interiors – hanging paintings, arrangement of various small items on numerous dressers and shelves – also took place under the direct supervision of Nicholas II and Alexandra Fedorovna. From that time until April 17, 1904, when the imperial couple moved to the Alexander Palace in Tsarskoe Selo, the rooms were regularly replenished with new items, many of which had a memorable character.
The details of the decoration of the private chambers of Nicholas II and Alexandra Fedorovna are now known mainly from photographs. At the same time, there is a scrupulous description of what surrounded them in everyday life.
Among the works of foreign masters, the preference was given to vases by Emile Halle. On various chests of drawers, bookcases, tables, there were fourteen items signed by the famous French master, and twelve of the “Galle genre”, most of which were made at the Imperial Glass Factory. All of them entered the Winter Palace between 1896 and 1901.
The vases were presented to Nicholas II and Alexandra Fedorovna as a gift from the Paris City Hall during their first visit to France, which took place from September 23 to September 27, 1896. The trip was organized just a few months after the coronation on May 14, 1896.
As part of the government delegation, Nicholas II, Alexandra Fedorovna and daughter Olga visited a number of European countries. The most magnificent and solemn reception was given to them in France, which needed a strong ally after the defeat in the war with Germany in 1870-1871.
In October 1893, in just twenty days, the table “Flora of Lorraine” was made in his atelier,
in the drawing of the inlaid tabletop of which the history of the province was told in the language of symbols.
Thus, the master expressed general hopes for Russia’s assistance in reuniting with the territories annexed by Germany as a result of the war of 1870-1871. The table was brought to Alexander III during the visit of the Russian squadron to France at the end of October, together with the “Golden Book of Lorraine”, for which it served as a table.

In 1905, a talented glass technologist Alexander Fedorovich Karzhavin was appointed managing director of the Gusevskaya and Urshelskaya crystal factories. Karzhavin repeatedly traveled abroad to buy samples of products, he was personally acquainted with Halle. Karzhavin developed a technology for making art glass “in the style of Halle” at the Gusev Crystal Factory.

The next stage in the development of glass in the “Halle technique” at the Gusev Crystal Factory is associated with the name of Pavel Nikolaevich Ignatiev (1870–1946), a distant relative of Nechaev-Maltsov through the Maltsovs. It was to him that Nechaev Maltsov, who had no children of his own, bequeathed most of his fortune, including all glass factories. Nechaev-Maltsov died in 1913 – since then the famous Maltsov glass empire passes to Ignatiev. Ignatiev was a well-educated person. From 1909 he served as director of the Department of Agriculture, and in 1915-1916 – Minister of Education of Russia. At the Gusev factory Ignatiev is organizing the production of unique, highly artistic products “in the Galle style”.

The art of the founder of the style, Emile Galle, was based on the ideas of symbolism.
Symbolism also permeated the art and culture of Russia at the beginning of the 20th century. In Gusev’s glass, the influence of the European iconography of symbolism is evident, which was embodied in the artistic system of Halle, who developed his own “language of flowers and dumb things.” Plants in the decor of his works were interpreted as the personification of one or another feeling, state of mind. So, the poppy symbolized oblivion, the lily – purity, grapes – the enjoyment of life, and the tulip – short-lived love. But the Gusev masters selected from the arsenal of French glass only those motifs that were close to their perception of the world.

Glass collections “in the style of Galle” in the Museum of the Imperial Porcelain Factory of the State Hermitage

One of the most interesting collections of the glass fund of the “Museum of the Imperial Porcelain Factory” consists of products of the Imperial Factories and French firms of the late 19th – early 20th centuries, including those made “in the style of Galle”. The unique collection of Art Nouveau samples, being within the walls of the factory museum, remained little known not only to the general public, but also to specialists. For the first time, this edition presents a wide range of items from the collection, made in the complex technique of decorating laminated glass, which received extraordinary distribution thanks to Emile Halle.
The creation of a museum at the Imperial Porcelain Factory was timed to coincide with the centenary of the enterprise. After the unification of the Imperial Porcelain and Glass Factories in 1890, the collection of the museum included a glass fund, which was actively replenished until 1917. The collection contained the best works of its own production and the most interesting and technologically and artistically diverse products of foreign manufactures. The factory collection has become a full-fledged industrial museum, designed to serve as a standard of taste, craftsmanship, a source of inspiration and experimentation for artists, draftsmen, craftsmen and technologists.

The first large receipt of glass items dates back to 1893, when in France, with the participation of Guriev, among others, items were purchased, made according to the designs of Emile Galle at the factory of the Parisian company Escalier de Cristal.
The acquisitions made contributed to the fact that already in 1893 at the Imperial factories the development of laminated glass technology began: “the first products using this method, including a stump-shaped vase with the image of lizards, made by the carver Orlovsky, were made during the reign of Emperor Alexander III.” … The earliest “Halle style” vase of St. Petersburg production, preserved in the collection of the Museum of the Imperial Porcelain Factory, dates back to 1897.

In 1897, ten Galle vases were purchased for the museum at once, which became the most significant receipt of the works of this master. Nine items have survived in the collection. All these things are of an exceptionally high artistic level, demonstrating a variety of non-repeating forms and types of decor. Among them are two objects that give a visual representation of the expressive possibilities of double-layer glass, when the beauty of monochrome
the graphic motif is achieved by the depth of etching and engraving of the top layer. Light
petals on a triangular vase, as if caught by the wind, scatter on all sides, here and there dissolving with light strokes against the general background, evoking associations with Japanese poetry.
The exquisite ornament of grape leaves is distinguished by a greater certainty of the pattern and berries, wrapping around a bowl of a rare four-bladed shape.

In the second half of the 1890s, a full-fledged collection of vases of their own production in the Art Nouveau style began to form in the Museum of the Imperial Factories, both in the “gallé technique” using multilayer crystal, and in the technique of carving on colorless and painted crystal. Sketches of ornamental motifs were made by the best artists of the Imperial factories – K. N. Krasovsky, S. R. Romanov, P. I. Krasnovsky, R. F. Wilde; talented factory masters such as I. Denisov, A. and D. Lukin, N. Semyonov acted as performers and sometimes authors of decor.

Imperial Glass Factory.
Works from multilayer crystal of the late 19th – early 20th centuries
Petersburg Glass Factory, which was named Imperial at the end of the 18th century, has always retained its position as the main glass production in the Russian Empire. The manufactory, which produced the best works in the country, served the needs of the imperial family and their entourage, some of the products were intended for diplomatic or other gifts.
The plant administration paid special attention to maintaining the high level of the enterprise.
For this, the artists were provided with comfortable conditions for creativity, the opportunity to receive additional education in the drawing classes of the Imperial Academy of Arts was provided, and for the best draftsmen and craftsmen, foreign business trips were organized to the leading enterprises of France, Denmark, Italy, Belgium, Germany, Bohemia, as well as to various exhibitions items of decorative and applied arts. The works of foreign factories were constantly supplied to the plant as samples, which were studied, and in some cases even copied. The plant introduced the latest glass production technologies. For this
purchased the most advanced technology, and in special laboratories conducted experiments to study various properties of glass, expand its palette, and improve processing.
Meanwhile, in the last quarter of the 19th century, the fate of the Imperial Glass Factory was being decided at the highest level as a “very unprofitable enterprise.” In 1882, the question of the further existence of the plant, supported by the treasury, was submitted to the Minister of the Imperial Court. Then it was decided to leave the enterprise in the department of the Cabinet of His Imperial Majesty, but to merge it with the Porcelain Factory on the basis of the latter, which was done in 1890. From that time on, the combined enterprise became known as the Imperial Porcelain and Glass Works.
All tools and workshops were transported to the Porcelain Factory, a complete reorganization of the enterprise was carried out, and many low-skilled and elderly workers were dismissed. Despite the difficult conditions in production, the plant did not stop production; moreover, it was in the 1880s that an active search for something new was carried out both in the formation and decoration of glass.
In 1890, the director of the plant, D.N. Guryev, gave instructions to start developing products from multilayer glass. Chemists and technologists, together with artists and craftsmen, carried out a large scientific and experimental work, and already in 1893 the first vase “according to the method of E. Halle” was made. From that time on, the manufactory began to regularly produce products made of multilayer crystal. Considering the technological features of the products and the fact that each product was manufactured according to an individual project, no more than 100 such items were produced per year.
During the 1890s -1910s, the imperial manufactory was constantly improving the technology of manufacturing products from multilayer glass. The chief chemist of the plant, Sergey Petrovich Petukhov (on the staff since 1869), over the years of service at the plant, has significantly expanded the palette and put the technology of cooking colored glass on a scientific basis. He summarized his many years of work in the book “Glass”.

Taking into account the accumulated experience and achievements of St. Petersburg glassmakers, basing their experiments on the achievements of Emile Galle, the artists of the Imperial factories not only imitated the unsurpassed master, but invented their own way of decorating laminated glass products.
Developed in the 1890s, the design technology for laminated glass products has been constantly improved. So, in 1908-1910, the artist of the plant GD Zimin conducted a number of experiments in the technique of interlayer painting: between two layers of colorless crystal was placed a spectacular painting. In a similar way, GD Zimin performed several works with lyrical Russian landscapes. The vases made by him are preserved in the Museum of the Imperial Porcelain Factory.
By creating new original works, the artists of the Imperial Glass Factory,
like Emile Galle, they were primarily interested in the world of plants and animals. Picture on glass vases, natural motifs required a careful study of those brought from Europe illustrated editions with drawings of bouquets, flowers, meadow and marsh plants, fruits, birds, animals, insects, ornaments from different eras, ciphers, initials and letters. In drawing rooms In the classrooms of the plant, there were always freshly cut greenhouse flowers. Among the artists-tekolschikov there even appeared a tradition to go to the open air, where they painted trees and shrubs, flowers and fruits from nature.

At the end of the XIX – beginning of the XX century, a whole galaxy stands out at the Imperial factories
craftsmen making completely new original products that are now in the collections of Russian museums, as well as in private collections. Archival documents, drawings and photographs have retained the names of artists who worked in the laminated glass technique: I.I. Murinov, K.N. Krasovsky, P.I. Krasnovsky, S.R. Romanov, N.T.Semenov, R.F. Wilde, GD Zimin, VI Kokin, I. Denisov and others. They received different education: some studied at the factory school, and then with the best artists right at the factory, others later attended the Drawing classes of the Academy of Arts; some graduated from the course in art-industrial schools and colleges.
The head of the Painting Workshop of the Imperial Glass Factory, I.I.Murinov, began work on the creation of products from laminated glass. One of his primary artistic tasks was the development of new forms and types of decor for colorless and colored crystal, as well as the introduction of new technologies in glass production. Thanks to this, the color range of crystal has expanded: products were made from pink, blue, green, aquamarine, smoky topaz, golden and colorless glass; various types of carving and grinding were also developed.
Many ideas of I.I.Murinov were subsequently implemented by the best artists of the Imperial factories, in particular, K.N. Krasovsky, who, before the merger of the enterprises, worked for about 40 years at the Imperial Porcelain Factory and specialized in depicting flowers, fruits, ornaments and insects. Krasovsky closely communicated with Murinov and was able to realize many of his ideas in glass. It is no coincidence that in the 1890s it was Krasovsky who was instructed to prepare drawings for the first vases made of laminated glass, and subsequently he received most of the orders for projects of products made in this technique. His watercolors were constantly submitted for approval to the Empress Alexandra Feodorovna and received her approval.

Multi-colored composite crystal.
“Galle Technique” at the Gusev Crystal Factory. 1900s – 1917
Gusevskaya Crystal Factory is the oldest glass enterprise in Russia, which existed since the middle of the 18th century. The beginning of its history was laid by the decree of the Senate of 1756, which prohibited
construction of iron and glass factories near Moscow and St. Petersburg. Therefore, Akim Maltsov’s small glass production was transferred, together with equipment and workers, from the Mozhaisky district of the Moscow province to the Gus river, which is 200 versts from Moscow.
“Artistic biography” of the Gusevsky Crystal Factory is typical for the entire glass Russian industry: the main trends in the art of Russian glass are reflected here XVIII – XX centuries. The plant began to produce crystal from the moment of its foundation. In the 19th century, “Maltsov” crystal was of good quality, withstood competition, and was in demand on the market.
At the All-Russian Manufactory Exhibitions, the plant’s products were awarded high awards: in 1831 – the Small Gold Medal, in 1829, 1833, 1835 – the Big Gold Medal, in 1849 – the “Highest Grace” and the right to put on the products the State Emblem, which on all subsequent exhibitions have invariably been confirmed. At the end of the 19th century, the Maltsovs’ enterprise received worldwide recognition: in 1893, at the World Exhibition in Chicago, the plant’s products were awarded the Bronze Medal at the Honorary Diploma, and in 1900 in Paris they received the highest award – the Grand Prix.

State Vladimir-Suzdal Museum-Reserve
The glass collection of the State Vladimir-Suzdal Museum-Reserve contains
56 works in the technique of Emile Halle, executed between 1900 and 1917. Among them, two vases made at the firm of Emile Halle and one made at the Brothers Dom manufactory; everything the rest were made by the craftsmen of the Gusev Crystal Factory.
All these works, with the exception of one vase, were transferred in 1981 from Obraztsovaya the pantry of the Gusevsky Crystal Factory – premises where samples of products from Russian and foreign enterprises were collected from the second quarter of the 19th century. The model pantry was formed by three generations of the Maltsov glass-makers; it has not only become the “assortment office of the enterprise”, but allows you to trace the entire history of domestic glassmaking from the middle of the 18th century to the present day.
Another vase, made between 1907 and 1914 at the manufactory of Emile Halle, was acquired by the museum in 1985 from a private person.
The museum also has a collection of glass “in the Halle technique” of the Soviet period, numbering
about 100 works produced at different times at the Gusevsky Crystal Factory.

State historical Museum
In the glass collection of the State Historical Museum, one of the largest in the country, the building
items of the late XIX – early XX century, decorated using the etching technique, occupies a very modest place in terms of quantity – only 22 exhibits.
Nevertheless, this “chamber” collection provides an opportunity to present the leading directions of work
Emile Halle, the Dom Brothers manufactory and the Crystal Factory in Pantin Stumpf, Tuvier, Viola
and K. ”, as well as the Gusev crystal factory of Yu. S. Nechaev-Maltsov.
The most notable work in this series is undoubtedly the vase of Emile Halle “The Fig Tree” of 1889 – one of the iconic works in his work, a true masterpiece, symbolism
and the style of which the master described in one of his “Letters on Art”.
Not less interesting both from an artistic and historical point of view are the wonderful souvenir works of the Dom Brothers manufactory, made in honor of the coronation of the Russian Tsar Nicholas II, as well as in memory of the friendly return visit of the squadron of Russian ships to Toulon. These rare pieces, although made in single-layer glass, demonstrate the highest class of execution of rapport ornamental etching, which creates a unique play of glass texture.
A great rarity is a magnificent vase depicting production cyclamens Gusev factory is the only Russian work in this section of the glass collection State Historical Museum; to date, its analogues are unknown.

State Museum-Reserve “Gatchina”
Until 1917, the collection of the Gatchina Palace contained more than two hundred objects made of laminated glass. They decorated the private rooms of the family of Alexander III, located in the mezzanine
floor of the Arsenal square.
Small, cozy rooms with very low ceilings were quite densely packed furniture and literally overflowing with all kinds of glass art that was typical for Art Nouveau interiors. Alexander III was known not only as a deep connoisseur of art, but also as a passionate collector. These were both things purchased while traveling across Europe and numerous gifts.
After the events of 1917, the Gatchina Palace shared the fate of other royal residences – already in May 1918 it was opened to visitors as a museum. Unique complex of front and residential interiors of the late 18th – early 20th centuries until 1941 were often called “suburban The Hermitage”.
However, in the 1920s-1930s, a significant part of the works of art was transferred to other museums, but what is most deplorable – in most cases things were seized for sale abroad.
and within the country. This especially affected the items of the second half of the XIX – early XX century, so
how even the leading art critics rejected the artistic significance of historicism and modernism.
During the Great Patriotic War, the entire Gatchina palace and park ensemble was significant damage was done; after 1945, the walls of the palace first housed a naval school, then a defense enterprise, and the collections of the Gatchina Palace were transferred to other museums (to date, only a small part of them have been returned).
The modern collection of the museum contains fifteen items in the “Galle style”. Two vases, in addition to a high artistic level, are of a memorial nature, as they were part of the decoration of the drawing room of the Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna.
The Gatchina Palace, thanks to the systematic work of the museum’s fund-purchasing commission, regularly replenishes its collections. After the opening of the permanent exhibition “Happy to be again House “dedicated to the living rooms of the family of Alexander III in the Gatchina Palace, primarily things of the modern era are acquired. The works of art purchased by the museum are distinguished by a high artistic level and adequately make up for the lost part of the famous collection.

State Museum-Reserve “Pavlovsk”
In the glass collection of the Pavlovsk Palace-Museum – a small but very heterogeneous one – the glass products of Emile Halle and “Brothers Dom” represent a fairly integral and significant part. The number of objects is small, but they are united by the fact that almost all of them belonged to members of the imperial family and were known to decorate the interiors of imperial palaces.
A number of items come from the private chambers of Emperor Alexander III and Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna in the Gatchina Palace; most of the collection belonged to Emperor Nicholas II and adorned the rooms of the Alexander Palace: Maple and Rosewood living rooms, Lilac office. Unfortunately, these interiors have not been recreated in full, but in the surviving photographs of the early 20th century, you can see some objects in their historical places.
After the Great Patriotic War, due to the circumstances, museum items suburban palaces were united into the Central Repository of Museum Funds, from where they entered the Pavlovsk Palace, where they are currently located.
The collection was gradually replenished with new acquisitions; through the purchasing commission received products from both the firms of Emile Halle and “Dom Brothers”, as well as other famous glass industries in France, interesting from an artistic point of view.
A small part of the items is in the permanent exhibition “Russian residential interior of the XIX century”, some were exhibited at a few exhibitions, often without catalogs, a large some of the subjects were not published. This edition will allow a wider presentation of the collection Pavlovsk Palace to specialists and everyone interested in art glass of this period.

State Museum-Reserve “Peterhof”
Among the most privileged admirers of the art of Emile Galle and his school were members of the Russian imperial family. Carved and etched laminated glass, which came into fashion at the end of the 19th century, became an indispensable attribute of the interiors of the imperial palaces.
The Imperial Glass Factory was the first in Russia to introduce a new technique, followed by the production of vases “in the style of Halle” at the Yu. S. Nechaev-Maltsov plant.
In the summer imperial residence in Peterhof, new works also adorned the interiors of the Cottage, which belonged to the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna, and Nizhnyaya
dachas of the family of Emperor Nicholas II. Both palaces located in Alexandria Park served dachas to members of the royal family. Built in 1827-1829 by Nicholas I and donated to his wife Alexandra Fedorovna The cottage was inherited by the family of the heir to the throne, the Grand Duke Alexander Alexandrovich, who became Emperor Alexander III. His widow Maria Feodorovna was the last owner of the palace, one of the rooms of which, which served as her office, was finished in 1894 in the Art Nouveau style by R. -F. Meltzer. Not far from the Beachfront Cottage
The Gulf of Finland in 1885, the Lower Dacha appeared, created according to the project of A. I. Tomishko for great
whom Prince Nikolai Alexandrovich, from 1894 – Emperor Nicholas II. In 1895-1897, after his weddings, the palace was expanded and renovated.
The main part of the collection entered the funds of the museum-reserve during the 1970s – 1980s, the period when in our country the applied art of the late XIX – early XX century still rarely found its admirers, both among museum workers and private collectors. At the same time, works by Emile Halle, The Brothers Dom, and their French, German, Scandinavian and Russian followers regularly appeared in the antique trade. Due to the lack of significant interest, they were relatively inexpensive, even despite the surge in popularity that was provoked by the State Hermitage exhibition “Applied Art of the Late 19th – Early 20th Centuries” held in 1974. It is worth noting that during the Soviet period there was practically no inflow of works of art from abroad, and items that had been preserved in the country in one way or another from pre-revolutionary times were sold on the antique market. The enviable regularity of their appearance in the antique trade serves as additional evidence of the recognition of this art form at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries both at the imperial court and among the wealthy strata of the population of Russia.
Today, the collection of the Peterhof Museum-Reserve includes more than 110 works by Emil Galle and his followers. The most significant of them were included in the catalog offered to the reader.

State Museum-Reserve “Tsarskoe Selo”
Art Nouveau pieces made of multilayer glass adorned the halls of the Alexander Palace in Tsarskoe Selo. The space of many rooms of the living quarters of the family of Nicholas II, arranged in the right wing of the palace, was organized by cozy “corners”. On numerous shelves and tables next to photographs, porcelain items, and memorable souvenirs, there were also laminated glass vases, placed personally by the hostess and creating an atmosphere of idyll and peace.
Some of the items played the role of important accents in the organization of the interior space of the premises. For example, two large paired Halle vases in the form of an oblate ball with a high neck of frosted glass with purple embossed flowers and leaves flanked the central part of the above-mantel mirror of the Lilac (Lilac) study of Empress Alexandra Fedorovna.
Based on the surviving photographs and inventory books of 1938, in the Lilac office, the Palisander, Corner and Maple drawing rooms there were about 40 works made in the workshops of Emile Halle, Brothers Dom and at the Imperial Porcelain and Glass Factories. it there were vases and table lamps of all kinds of shapes and decorative solutions.
Among the products of domestic production that were in the halls of the Alexander Palace, I would like to note the vase of the Imperial Porcelain and Glass Factories, made in the form aquarium, round, with cut edges, with flat side walls, trimmed with a carved pattern of algae: on one wall there is a river bottom with algae and a school of fish, on the other – crayfish among algae.
During the years of revolutions and the Great Patriotic War, laminated glass products were significantly damaged. The surviving items are still scattered across many museum and private collections. To date, the museum displays only two “native” works made in the workshop of Emile Halle.
Today, the museum’s collection contains industrial-made laminated glass products made at the European manufactories of Emile Halle, Dom Brothers, the Legra and K. glass and crystal factory, the Crystal Factory in Pantin, and the Crystal Factories in Val Saint-Lambert , glass factory “Ludwig Moser and sons”, as well as made at domestic enterprises – the Imperial porcelain and glass factories and the Gusevskaya crystal factory.
Most of the items are presented at the exhibition “Memories in Tsarskoe Selo”, unfolded in the right wing of the Alexander Palace and dedicated to the life of the family of Nicholas II in their favorite summer residence.

State Museum of Ceramics and “Kuskovo Estate of the 18th century”
The collection of works by Emil Halle and his foreign and Russian followers, kept in the State Museum of Ceramics and the “Kuskovo Estate of the 18th century”, has more than 60 works and demonstrates the main stages and trends in the work of the masters who worked with laminated glass.
The collection was formed in several main stages. The first receipts date back to the 1920s. In 1924, 1927-1929, the MMC received works of the House Brothers manufactory and the Imperial Porcelain and Glass Factories from the Leningrad Commission of the State Fund, Yusupov, Catherine and Gatchina palaces-museums. There were also isolated receipts in 1935 from the Polytechnic Museum of Moscow. Further replenishment of the collection dates back to the late 1970s – 1980s. During these years, the Main Department of Culture of the Executive Committee of the Moscow City Council and the museum itself acquired about 40 works from private collectors. Among them are the products of the manufactories of Emile Galle, “Dom Brothers”, crystal factories in Saint-Louis, Pantin, Val-Saint-Lambert, IFiSZ and the Gusevskaya crystal factory. In contrast to the 1920s – 1930s, when the acquisition of glass from the Art Nouveau era was of an accidental nature, the subsequent period is characterized by purposeful, systematic acquisition.
A significant part of the presented collection consists of works by the Emile Galle manufactory, decorated with floral and landscape motifs, made in 1900-1914.
These are vases of serial production, the shapes and ornaments of which were repeated in various versions. Several items date from the late 1880s – 1890s. They differ in their original form and technique. In addition, the museum possesses several unique pieces of early work by Emile Galle, which is called the “transparent period”. Among them are a jug made of glass with a light shade of topaz and a glass from the Pampres service (project 1884-1889), exquisite in proportions and the character of enamel painting, created in one of the workshops of the glass factory “Burgun, Schwerer and K.” in Meisenthal.
The collection of works by domestic followers of Halle in the museum collection is represented by vases of the Imperial Porcelain and Glass Factories and the Gusev Crystal Factory, many of which are large and complex in shape. Twelve works of the Kuskovo Estate
demonstrate high quality, complexity of processing, the authors’ attention to the smallest details.
They are made according to the drawings of the leading painters of the plant V. Kokin, P. Krasnovsky, I. Denisov
carvers A. Andreev, A. Zotov, T. Kozlov and others. In addition to plant motifs,
artists actively use at this time the motives of the lyrical landscapes of Russia, which are reflected
and in the titles of several works: “The Village”, “Under the Lindens”, “Huts by the Lake”.
The objects of the Gusev crystal factory are few in number, but, nevertheless, they reflect the main directions in the work of the Gusev craftsmen in the gallé technique, their predilection for certain types of forms and decor (trunk and conical vases depicting landscapes or plant motifs).
In general, the collection is distinguished by the presence of works of high quality workmanship, various forms, original colors. This is one of the largest collections of glass by Emil Halle and his followers among the collections of Moscow museums, characterizing the development of art glass in the Art Nouveau era.

State Hermitage, Department of Western European applied arts
The artistic level of laminated glass products presented in the collection Of the Department of Western European Applied Art of the State Hermitage, unusually high, some of them are made in a single copy.
The Hermitage collection of art glass by Emile Galle and his school began in 1931, when six vases made by a French master were transferred from the Museum of the Revolution (Leningrad), which occupied the Neva suite of the Winter Palace in 1920-1941, to the Department of Applied Arts. Before the 1917 revolution, they decorated the private chambers of the family of the last Russian emperor, and in 1922–1926 they were exhibited in the so-called Historical Rooms of the Winter Palace.
Since 1924, the former Museum of the Central School of Technical Drawing of Baron Stieglitz was officially transferred to the jurisdiction of the State Hermitage, and the items stored in it began to be transferred to the Hermitage. At the beginning of the 1930s, as evidenced by the Hermitage inventories, the turn came to glass, and the Hermitage collection was replenished with six more unique works by Emile Galle.
After the October Revolution, many works by Emile Halle and his followers from the palaces and mansions of the aristocracy, as well as from the houses of the wealthy bourgeoisie of St. Petersburg, ended up in the State Museum Fund. Its creation was preceded by the Artistic and Historical Commission at the Winter Palace, formed in August 1917 for the acceptance and inventory of the property of the palaces
Petrograd. After the revolution, the commission was engaged not only in the registration and protection of palace property, but also in nationalized private collections. The most valuable works came to warehouses, located in the Winter Palace. In 1921, the commission was renamed the Petrograd branch of the State Museum Fund of the Glavnauki People’s Commissariat for Education of the RSFSR.
It was liquidated in 1929, but the Hermitage retained its own branch of the Museum Fund,
where items continued to be received, in particular those returning from Antiques, an organization
tions engaged in the sale of antiques and works of art abroad. In the 1930s
over the years, works from the Hermitage Museum Fund have been actively transferred for permanent storage
to the museum with registration and entry into inventory books. Thus, the Hermitage collection was replenished with eight more works by Emile Galle and five by the House Brothers manufactory.
Systematic collecting by the Hermitage of items from the School of Nancy and its followers began only at the end of the 1960s, thanks to the work of N. Yu. Biryukova, head of the Department of Applied Arts. With her active participation, in 1974 the first exhibition of art from the late 19th and early 20th centuries was organized in the Hermitage, accompanied by a catalog. It featured 24 works by Emile Galle, five products from the Dom Brothers firm, as well as several works by the Imperial Porcelain and Glass Works in the “Halle style”. The exhibition has become a kind the rehabilitation of modern art, which for a long time was considered an expression of the decadent tastes of bourgeois society. In subsequent years, the Hermitage acquired 45 more works, executed between
1900 and 1930 at the factories of Emile Halle, “Brothers Dom”, glass and crystal factories
in Saint-Denis (“Legras and K.”), Panten (Stumpf, Tuvier, Viola and K.).

The catalog of the 1999 exhibition Lorraine Orchids, which presented the Hermitage collection of the School of Nancy, for a long time remained the only full-scale study in Russian devoted to this topic.
Temporary exhibitions held in various countries were also of great importance for replenishing information about the works of Emile Gallé and the House Brothers kept in the Hermitage. Thanks to the materials collected by foreign partners, we can now more fully imagine the history of the creation and existence of a number of objects.
At present, the Hermitage collection contains 84 works made of laminated glass, and it continues to be replenished through the Museum’s Fund-Purchase Commission. The history of the collection begun
in 1931, continues.
Since the collection was presented in detail in the catalog of the exhibition “Lorraine Orchids”
(St. Petersburg, 1999), in this edition it is given selectively; several exhibits are published for the first time.

State Hermitage, Department of the History of Russian Culture
At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, the Imperial Hermitage began to form a collection of Russian glass, made “according to the method of Emile Galle”.
The best multi-layered crystal products, selected by Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna, decorated the living quarters of the imperial couple, some of the works went to the “Museum of Fine Crystal and Porcelain”, located on the territory of the Imperial Porcelain and Glass Factories.
After the revolution, the collection of the Imperial Hermitage passed into state ownership, and later many exhibits were included in the collection of the Historical and Household Department formed at the State Russian Museum. It was supplemented by works from the nationalized palaces of the Russian nobility, as well as other private collections. In 1937, the Historical and Household Department was disbanded, most of its collection became the basis of the Historical Department of the State Museum of Ethnography of the Peoples of the USSR. In April 1941, all the collections of this department were transferred to the State Hermitage, to the Department of the History of Russian Culture. At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, a significant part of the meeting was evacuated to Sverdlovsk; work resumed only after the end of the war and the return of the exhibits to the Hermitage.
By this time in the collection of Russian art glass, there were eight works of the Imperial Glass Factory, executed “according to the method of Emile Halle.” Unfortunately, due to frequent movements, many documents revealing their origin have been lost. but during the attribution of the works, it was found that some vases adorned the interiors of the personal chambers of Emperor Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna in the Winter Palace.
After the war, the collection of Russian art glass from the turn of the XIX-XX centuries was not replenished
new works: the Art Nouveau style was considered not a natural period in Russian art, but an implanted, “embedded” one. Only in the last quarter of the twentieth century there was interest in it. In 1985, through the Stock-Purchasing Commission of the Hermitage, two works were acquired from many layered crystal, made at the beginning of the twentieth century at the Gusevskaya crystal factory.
Now in the collection of works from multilayer crystal “according to the method of Emile Halle” in the collection of the Department of the History of Russian Culture, ten works; these are unique samples of the products of the Imperial Glass Factory and the Gusevskaya Crystal Factory of the late 19th – early 20th centuries, many of them are mentioned in archival documents as some of the best produced by these enterprises.
In this edition, the collection of art glass from the Imperial Glass Factory, kept in the Department of the History of Russian Culture of the Hermitage, is presented selectively, since it is fully described in the catalog of T. A. Malinina “The Imperial Glass Factory: 18th – early 20th century”. There are also two exhibits made at the Gusevskaya crystal factory; one of them has not been published before.

State Hermitage Museum of the Imperial porcelain factory
One of the most interesting collections of the glass fund of the department of the State Hermitage Museum
Imperial Porcelain Factory “consists of products of the Imperial Factories and French firms of the late 19th – early 20th centuries, including those made in the” Halle style “. Its addition is active went on until 1917.
The first major entry into the museum of glass items dates back to 1893, when five items were purchased in France, made according to the designs of Emile Galle in the Paris plant “Escalier de Cristal”. In 1896, four more vases were purchased with the Escalier de Cristal ”, three of which were designed by Galle and preserved in the museum’s funds.
In 1897, the museum acquired ten vases by Emile Galle at once, which was the most significant receipt of the works of this master; nine of them have survived in the collection. All these are things of the highest artistic level, demonstrating a variety of unique forms and types of decor.
At the beginning of the 1900s, the museum’s collection was replenished with a few but extremely important items by Emile Halle; among them is the only item in this collection that belongs to the so-called verreries parlantes (“talking glass”).
In addition to the works of Emile Halle and his company, the collection of the Museum of the Imperial Factories contains three vases from the Dom Brothers manufactory.
Since 1893, at the Imperial factories, the development of the production of laminated glass decorated with carving began. In the collection of the Museum of the Imperial Factories, the earliest vase “in the style of Halle” made in St. Petersburg dates back to 1897.
Since the second half of the 1890s, the museum has formed a full-fledged collection of vases created by the masters of the Institute of Physics and Mathematics in the Art Nouveau style, both in the “Halle” technique using multilayer crystal, and in the technique of carving on colorless and colored crystal.
In 1908, at the Imperial factories, following the example of the Brothers Dom manufactory, they mastered the technique of “painting with paints between two layers of glass, connected through fire into one mass.” …
By the beginning of 1914, the collection of glass in the Museum of the Imperial Factories numbered about 1900 items.
comrade (about 1400 – things of the factories themselves, a little less than 500 – samples of European firms). Events The 20th century led to the fact that the collection of glass decreased by more than four times, and a little more than 100 items remained from the collection of Western European glass. Nevertheless, the complex of surviving samples of glassmaking of the late 19th – early 20th centuries demonstrates the wide plastic and expressive possibilities of glass, with which both European and Russian artists of that time actively worked.

Elaginoostrovsky Palace-Museum of Russian Decorative and Applied Arts and Interior of the 18th-20th centuries
The decoration of the Western European part of the collection of the Museum of Art Glass in the Elaginoostrovsky Palace-Museum is three works made in 1904-1906 in France, in Nancy, at the manufactory of Emile Halle after the artist’s death, when the production was headed by his wife Henrietta Halle-Grimm.
A vase depicting erythematous flowers has a spherical body and a high narrow neck, reminiscent of the art of the Middle East. Delicate in color, pale pink, it is decorated with an openwork low relief of green glass obtained by etching. The sharp leaf of the erythematosus contrasts with the round shape of the object, emphasizing its plasticity.
Emile Halle’s favorite floral motif is used in the design of a vase with a picture of a hydrangea. Its shape – a vertically elongated cylindrical vessel – was developed around 1900 and was repeatedly reproduced during the period of the manufacture’s activity. The smooth surface of the vessel made it possible to successfully arrange a complex, almost ornamental pattern decor. Hydrangea flowers gracefully braid the walls of the vase. With the help of etching, layer by layer, cold purple, pink, green, milky shades of colored glass are revealed.
A vase depicting a landscape with trees is a fairly common plot,
appeared in the design of industrial products of the company of Emile Halle during the lifetime of the master.
It shows how the artist solved painting tasks by etching and frosting glass, playing
colors, subtle tonal transitions, development of plans.
In the collection of the Museum of Art Glass there is also a vase depicting a landscape with a lake, made at the manufactory of the followers of the work of Emile Galle – brothers Auguste and Antonin Dom (France, Nancy, 1910–1914). This brand is characterized by monumentality, graphic elaboration, silhouette of the foreground and coloristic restraint.
Today in a style similar to Halle The Honored Artist of Russia V.I.Kasatkin, who has worked for more than 30 years
at the Gusev Crystal Factory. His works of laminated colored glass, decorated using the etching technique, are also presented in the museum.