Amalric Walter

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Advertising board from Pâte de verre by Amalric Walter
around 1920, 15 cm × 8 cm

Victor Amalric Walter (born May 19, 1870 in Sèvres , France ; † November 9, 1959 in Lury-sur-Arnon , France) was a French ceramist and glassmaker who was best known for his glass art from Pâte de verre .

Life

  • Earthenware plate, approx. 1900, diameter 29.5 cm

  • Press paper "petit mars changeant", approx. 1925, 8 cm × 8 xm × 5 cm

  • Vase with a lizard

  • Goldfish

Early years

Amalric Walter's father Adolphe Joseph and grandfather Francesco were already employed in the porcelain production of Sèvres . From 1885 Walter received a four-year training course at the Manufacture nationale de Sèvres , where he learned the production methods of models and shapes as well as painting and enamelling techniques. After his military service, which he served from 1892 to 1893, he worked with Félix-Optat Milet (1838–1911) as a decorator for the decorative design of ceramic vases in a workshop in the Rue des Binelles (Sèvres).

Walter was awarded a bronze medal for his ceramics at the National and Colonial Exhibition in Rouen in 1896 , he received an honorary diploma at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1900 and won a gold medal at the Exposition Internationale du travail in Paris in 1901 . Inspired by the work of Henry Cros , he then experimented with Gabriel Lévy, his former teacher at the Manufacture de Sèvres, on the composition of pâte de verre , German  glass paste . Their joint workshop was located at 9 rue des Ecoles in Paris. In 1903 they presented their first pieces of glass together at the Salon of the Société nationale des beaux-arts (which they still called pâte d'émaux agglomérés , German: agglomerated enamel paste ), a 30 × 50 cm, framed mural with the motif of a fruit vine ( La Treille ), a small tray decorated with dandelions, seven vases and the bust of a young Parisian woman, modeled on statues by the sculptors Denys Puech and Eugène Delagrange (1871–1920).

Crystal Daum

Antonin Daum from the Daum crystal factory in Nancy was so impressed by Walter and Lévy's work at this exhibition that he offered the two artists a job in his glassworks in Nancy, where he was also head of the art department. In 1903, Daum, Walter and Lévy agreed to work together for ten years. For 25,000 francs, Walter undertook to set up the production of works from Pâte de verre in Daum's factory using the method discovered by Walter and to produce a certain number of pieces. In 1904 he started working for Daum, but there were disagreements between Walter and Lévy. Lévy had pre-financed Walter and did not want to move to Nancy, so he was compensated by Daum and withdrew from the project in the same year.

Walter, who felt at home with Daum, continued his production in collaboration with the local chief decorator Henri Bergé (1870–1937). A lifelong friendship and working relationship developed between Walter and Bergé. Together they created over 100 models from Pâte de verre in the bright colors of Art Nouveau . Charles Schneider oversaw other projects. Walter's stained glass windows were on display at Daum's stand at the Exposition Internationale de l'Est de la France in Nancy in 1909 and at the Musée Galliera in Paris in 1910 , where they were celebrated as a sensation and earned him a gold medal in Paris. He won another gold medal at the 1910 World's Fair in Brussels . The art press praised his creations. Daum sold the Walters objects in his Paris boutique at 32 rue de Paradis. The collaboration with Daum lasted until 1914, when production had to be stopped at the beginning of the First World War .

Self-employment after the First World War

After his military service, Walter founded his own atelier in 1919 under the name A. Walter Nancy in the Rue Claudot von Nancy, where he continued the production of works from Pâte de verre with the same technique and most of the models previously used. The relationship with Antonin Daum remained friendly. Daum was open to further collaboration between Walter and the artists employed in his company, in particular Henri Bergé continued to supply Walter with new models. Walter's products were sold in luxury shops, such as the Parisian Éditeur d'Art (art publisher) Arthur Goldscheider . Walter belonged to the artist group L'Evolution , founded by Goldscheider , whose work Goldscheider showed in 1925 at the Exposition internationale des Arts Décoratifs et industriels moderne , which shaped the term Art Deco .

With Henri Bergé and the other modellers, he created almost 500 different glass models in the interwar period. He reproduced works by artists such as Alfred Finot , Jules Cayette , Joé Descomps-Cormier , Auguste Houillon , Auguste Rodin and others. Because of the complexity of the pâte de verre technique, the number of copies of his works was mostly small.

Great Depression, World War II and decline

Triggered by the global economic crisis , the demand for Amalric Walter's luxury products fell from 1929, so that he had to reduce production and staff. He fired his last three employees in 1935; He sold his studio in Via Claudot 20 to a goldsmith from Nancy. This goldsmith had also bought up the equipment and the shapes of the models of the failed Gallé glassworks , together with the remaining stock of finished goods and, above all, the models of the transparent vases, the decorative design of which had not yet been carried out. The decoration of these vases with their classic original themes was completed in Walter's workshop until shortly before the German campaign in the west of 1940.

During the German occupation of France in World War II , Walter left Nancy and sought refuge with a relative at Château de Meysset near Sarlat-la-Canéda . He returned to Nancy after the end of the war in 1945, but did not make any further pieces from Pâte de verre . He went blind in 1954 and, plagued by economic problems, retired to Lury-sur-Arnon with his childhood friend Albert Bidaut. In 1959 he died here penniless, just a few days after his friend's accidental death. He was laid to rest in the community's small cemetery.

plant

Walter's sculptural work mainly contained elements of Art Nouveau, with a variety of naturalistic motifs, including small reptiles, frogs, insects and goldfish, as well as a variety of other animals. His pieces were characterized by his distinctive control of the course of the colors, for example a salamander from Walter had a realistic and typical staining. Its often condensed or opaque surface patterns are supported by backgrounds made of less dense, more translucent glass that create depth in the multi-colored pieces. He also produced pâte-de-verre medallions, sconces and decorative blackboards, but mostly smaller useful or decorative pieces such as ashtrays, pin boxes, brooches or pendants.

In the style of Art Nouveau and at the request of Antonin Daum, between 1904 and 1914, in addition to his glass windows with landscape and water motifs, he produced a whole range of objects, including accessories for women's clothing. He decorated the interiors of the villa of the automobile designer Marius Berliet in Lyon with a fireplace with cabochons , in 1912 the house Losseau in Mons , Belgium , a house on Sellier Street in Nancy and others. He also decorated furniture such as buffets, benches, bookcases and other woodwork, in which he inserted plates made from pâte de verre . His work with human images was inspired by classicism . In the interwar period, his relatively small plates and his lidded bowls decorated with reptiles, insects and flora were popular with customers. After 1925, and especially after 1929, he changed his style towards Art Deco.

Pieces produced before 1914 are marked with Daum Nancy and the Cross of Lorraine . After 1919 Walter signed his work with AW or A. Walter Nancy , and many pieces also bear the designer's signature. The mark or signature usually appears on the decorated surface on the side of the work in question and not under the bottom, the surface of which is often sanded smooth and flat.

Solo exhibitions

  • Max Stewart: Amalric Walter's first solo exhibition. Broadfield House Glass Museum, Kingswinford, West Midlands, August 2006.

literature

  • François Le Tacon, Jean Hurstel: Amalric Walter - Maître de la pâte de verre. Serpenoise, 2013. ISBN 978-2-87692-954-8 , p. 152.

Web links

Commons : Amalric Walter  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Les périodes importantes de la carrière d'artiste d'Amalric Walter. In: amalric-walter.net
  2. ^ A b c Keith Cummings: Contemporary Kiln-formed Glass. A&C Black, 2009. ISBN 1-40810-075-4 , pp. 27f.
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Giorgio Catania: Amalric Walter (Sèvres 1870 - Lury-sur-Arnon 1959). In: www.artericerca.com/Vetro francese / Walter Amalric / Amalric Walter biografia - Giorgio Catania.htm
  4. ^ Judith Miller : Miller's Field Guide: Glass. Hachette UK, 2015. ISBN 1-78472-071-2 , p. 131.
  5. ↑ Victor Arwas : Art Nouveau. The French Aesthetic. Papadakis Publishers, 2002. ISBN 1-90109-237-2 , p. 489.
  6. ↑ a b c Giuseppe Cappa: Le génie verrier de l'Europe. Témoignages. De l'historicisme à la modernité (1840–1998). Editions Mardaga, 1998. ISBN 2-87009-680-1 , p. 444.
  7. ^ Robert E. Dechant, Filipp Goldscheider: Goldscheider. Company history and catalog raisonné. Historicism, Art Nouveau, Art Deco, 1950s. Arnoldsche Verlagsanstalt, Stuttgart 2007. ISBN 978-3-89790-216-9 , 640 pp.
  8. ^ Martin P. Eidelberg, Roberta A. Mayer: Opulence in an Age of Industry. Turn-of-the-century Decorative Arts from the Collection of Sigmund Freedman. April 11-June 27, 1993. Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers, State University of New Jersey , 1993. p. 45.
  9. ↑ a b c d e Judith Miller : Miller's Field Guide. Art deco. Hachette UK, 2014. ISBN 1-78472-014-3 , p. 65.
  10. ↑ Eric Knowles : Art Deco . Bloomsbury Publishing, 2014. ISBN 0-74781-521-6 , p. 94.
  11. ^ The Amalric Walter Research Project and subsequent development. In: www.artericerca.com/Vetro francese / Walter Amalric / Amalric Walter - Max Stewart.htm
personal data
SURNAME Walter, Amalric
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Walter, Victor Amalric (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French ceramist and glassmaker
DATE OF BIRTH May 19, 1870
PLACE OF BIRTH Sèvres , France
DATE OF DEATH November 9, 1959
Place of death Lury-sur-Arnon , France