03 — ARTWORK
Portrait of Emile Gallé
- MEDIUM
- Oil on canvas, 150 x 98 cm
- TYPE
- Portrait
PALETTE
HOVER OR TAP A SWATCH FOR NAME, SHARE AND HEX. SAMPLED FROM THE IMAGE — INDICATIVE, NOT A PIGMENT ANALYSIS.
THIS REPRODUCTION DOWNLOAD THE FULL FILE ↓
- FILE
- 524 × 900 px · JPEG
COMMENTARY
UNDERLINED TERMS ARE DEFINED IN THE GLOSSARY.
Prouvé represents his friend Emile Gallé working on a vase, surrounded by a few of his glassware and floral inspirations. As the designer of the objects produced by his firm, Gallé scrupulously verified and commented on each step of the process.
In this portraitThe Roman portrait bust survived in the form of life-sized reliquaries of saints, but it was in 15th century Florence that the individual features and character of a contemporary sitter were accurately recorded by sculptors such as Donatello, Desiderio da Settignano, Mino da Fiesole and the Rossellino. A similar degree of realism occurs in 15th century tomb sculpture. The equestrian portrait, based on antique statues such as the Marcus Aurelius monument (Rome, Campidoglio), was revived in the 14th century. Two examples in fresco are Simone Martini's Guidoriccio (c. 1328; Siena, Palazzo Pubblico) and the posthumous portrait of Sir John Hawkwood (1436; Florence, Cathedral) by Uccello, which gives the illusion of a 3-dimensional statue seen from below. The Venetian Republic ordered imposing monuments from Donatello (1447; Gattarnelata, Padua) and Verrocchio (14799; Colleoni, Venice), whilst other statesmen ordered their own images to be erected in public places, directly relating themselves to the military heroes of ancient Rome. Another form of political portraiture derived from antiquity was the commemorative portrait medal designed by artists such as Pisanello. The carved or painted profile portrait became popular in the 1450s. The realism of the clear, flattened image, painted under the influence of Flemish examples by the Pollaiuolo brothers, Piero della Francesca and Botticelli, was superseded by the three-quarter and frontal portrait, psychologically more complex, such as Leonardo's enigmatic Mona Lisa (Paris, Louvre) with her momentary smile or Andrea del Sarto's arresting Portrait of a Man (London, National Gallery). The 16th century portrait became generalized, Lotto's Andrea Odoni (1527; Royal Collection) being an idealized concept of a collector rather than an individual. Group portraits, decorating whole rooms, include the narrative scenes of the Gonzaga court painted by Mantegna (completed 1474; Mantua, Palazzo Ducale) and the elaborate schemes commissioned by the Farnese family in Rome from Vasari (1546; Palazzo della Cancelleria) and Salviati (after 1553; Palazzo Farnese). Portraits were also incorporated into religious narratives, as in Ghirlandaio's fresco cycle painted for Giovanni Tornabuoni in S. Maria Novella, Florence (1486-90)., two physical characteristics of Gallé have been accentuated: his wide, airy forehead (traditionally a sign of intelligence), and his hands, particularly his left hand holding a vase (elongated, reminding us of Gallé's manual profession). These characteristics transmit the idea that man's social progress can be achieved through the combination of intellectual and manual labour.
"The ambience depicts the lyrical poetic spirit of Gallé, to which the treatment of light also contributes as an integrating element, forming a kind of halo behind the head of the subject." (Quoted from the exhibition catalogue, Nancy, 1900).
CITE THIS RECORD — BIBTEX
@online{wga-r5738864eaf0dca,
author = {Krén, Emil and Marx, Daniel},
title = {Portrait of Emile Gallé by PROUVÉ, Victor Emile},
organization = {{Web Gallery of Art}},
date = {2026-09-13},
url = {https://beta.wga.hu/artists/prouv-victor-emile-raa145e2fb9ba27/portrait-of-emile-gall-r5738864eaf0dca},
urldate = {2026-09-13},
langid = {english}
}ACCESSED 2026-09-13. REPLACE THE AUTHOR FIELD WITH THE COMMENTARY AUTHOR WHERE ONE IS NAMED.
OTHER WORKS BY VICTOR EMILE PROUVÉ
The archive catalogues no further works by this artist.
TRY SAME COLLECTION →