Gabriel Argy-Rousseau

Joseph Gabriel Argy-Rousseau (born March 17, 1885 in Meslay-le-Vidame , France , † January 20, 1953 in Paris ) was a French glass artist and ceramist of Art Nouveau and Art Deco .

Life

Joseph-Gabriel Rousseau was the son of a peasant family and became interested in drawing from an early age. He first attended the École Breguet and from 1902 the École Nationale des Céramiques de Sèvres , where he showed an interest in the subjects of physics and chemistry. Here he got to know the son of the pioneer of the pâte de verre technique, Henry Cros . After graduating from school in 1906, Rousseau first worked in a research laboratory for the development of dental porcelain, after which he devoted himself exclusively to pâte de verre glass art. In 1913 he married the goldsmith Marianne Argyriadès, who was of Greek descent and sparked Rousseau's interest in Greek and classical art. After his marriage, Rousseau added the first four letters of his wife's maiden name to his name and called himself "Argy-Rousseau" from then on.

From 1914 Argy-Rousseau took part in the Salons des Artistes Français in Paris , where he received numerous enthusiastic reviews of his work. In 1921 he met the gallery owner and glassworks owner Gustave Gaston Moser-Millot, with whom he founded the Société Anonyme des Pâtes de Verre d'Argy-Rousseau . Over six months he developed the pâte de verre technology with the company , set up new workshops and ovens, trained 20 workers and in 1923 began producing regular commissioned work. The Galerie Moser-Millot held the exclusive rights to the exhibition and sale of works by Argy-Rousseau, but he did not disclose the production process of Pâte de verre and retained the exclusive rights to it. Moser-Millot acted as chairman of the board and Argy-Rousseau became managing director, with a base salary and a share of the profits. His work was in demand in Europe (especially Romania), North Africa, the United States and Latin America. Argy-Rousseau advertised his goods and techniques in French and American magazines for the decorative arts and published brochures for his customers, in which he described his technique and the skills required for it.

Nature was an important theme in his work, in which he mainly depicted flowers, insects, animals and female forms. Many of his vases were surrounded by flowers in their upper part. From 1917 onwards, the forms of his works lengthened, expressing the influence of Japanese art. Scenes from ancient mythology (such as in Le Jardin des Hespérides ) were also common motifs. He often varied the glass in its thickness and, depending on the design, from semi-transparent to opaque .

Argy-Rousseau was also an inventor. During the First World War , he filed several patents , some of which were used by the French Ministry of Defense. The “instant color photography process” he developed received a silver medal in 1925 from the Société d'encouragement au progrès and another from the Office national des recherches scientifiques et industrielles et des inventions . However, he lacked financial support for marketing.

Despite the complexity of the pâte de verre process, through experiments he succeeded in rationalizing it to a semi-industrial manufacturing process by introducing a workflow similar to assembly line production and using master molds that could be used to produce working molds for firing. Argy-Rouseeau oversaw all aspects of this process as technical and artistic director.

Despite his initial success and its progress in the rationalization broke the market for luxury glass with the Great Depression in the late 1920s considerably. On the advice of his customers, Argy-Rousseau tried to redesign his models for vases, bowls, lamps and other items. However, Moser-Millet insisted on converting the product range to religious objects. The artist was not impressed by this and refused to sign these goods. In addition, these articles also sold poorly, so that Moser-Millot closed the company on December 31, 1931, on the tenth anniversary of its existence.

In July 1932, Argy-Rousseau acquired parts of the inventory of the closed factory and set up his own atelier in Paris' Rue Cail, where he now worked independently and only called on employees when necessary. Despite his hostility to Moser-Millet after the liquidation of their factory, he was contractually obliged to continue selling his work through his gallery. Argy-Rousseau manufactured new products and developed new techniques, which included the pâte de verre enailles process (between 1932 and 1934, small quantities of sculptures were made with it) and the pâte de cristal process (from 1934 to 1937) . He then worked mainly with enamelled glass.

Meanwhile, the taste in the market for art glass had changed; Companies such as Daum Frères & Cie , Lalique or Tiffany now produced opalescent and tinted glass in large quantities and at lower prices, at which Argy-Rousseau could no longer be competitive. In addition, during the Second World War he had difficulties finding raw materials and fuel for his stoves. He took a job in a porcelain factory whose production processes he was able to optimize. Nevertheless, he remained heavily in debt, so the Société des artistes décorateurs threatened to terminate his membership due to outstanding contributions. Gabriel Argy-Rousseau last exhibited in 1952 and died on January 20, 1953 after suffering from a heart disease.

literature

• Victor Arwas : The Art of Glass. Art Nouveau to Art Deco. Rizzoli, 1997, ISBN 978-0-84782-054-2 , p. 99.
• Judith Miller : Miller's Field Guide. Art deco. Hachette UK, 2014, ISBN 978-1-78472-014-8 , p. 63.
• Eric Bradley: Antique Trader Antiques and Collectibles Price Guide 2018. F + W Media, Inc., 2017, ISBN 978-1-44024-840-5 , p. 426.
• Jared Goss : French Art Deco. Metropolitan Museum of Art , New York City 2014, ISBN 978-0-30020-430-8 , p. 26.
• Lesley Jackson: Twentieth Century Factory Glass. Rizzoli, 2000, p. 16.

Web links

• Gabriel Argy-Rousseau (French, 1885-1953). In: artnet , with pictures of works by Argy-Rousseau.
• G. Argy-Rousseau, 1885-1953. In: macklowegallery.com.
• Data sheet Argy-Rousseau, Gabriel (1885-1953). In: Bibliothèque nationale de France

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Ildikó Kálosi, Diána Radványi: Tiffany & Gallé Art Nouveau Glass . Ed .: Gabriella Balla. Museum of Applied Arts ( Hungarian Museum of Applied Arts ), Budapest 2007, ISBN 978-963-9738-03-4 , p. 132 .