Today, these beautiful glass vases will not only delight my reader with the beauty of floral and natural patterns, but will also tell an incredible story about how:
- how a simple forester created a huge glass production “corporation”;
- and how this same amazing forester was able to “harness a horse and a trembling doe into one cart” - combine remarkable creative talent with commercial success.
Landscapes on vases:
Undoubtedly, Legras Francois was inspired by the unsurpassed works of Galle, but vases painted by Legras, despite common motifs with Galle and Daum, are still original and recognizable.
The company's founding father, Legras Francois Theodore (1839-1916), was born into a modest family, starting life as a forester in a department near Strasbourg.
In 1859, Legras decided that there was more to life than trees and leaves and took a job as an apprentice clerk in a glass factory that, most importantly for Legras, specialized in the production of opaque, textured glass.
Amazing! Gallery with vases in the Art Nouveau style by François Legras:
After learning the trade for five years, Legras moved to Paris and took a job at the Plaine St Denis factory, becoming a senior manager by the age of 27.
Having secured the support of patrons who invested in the Legras project, seeing him as a promising worker, the artist was able to experiment in glass production. Recalling his childhood in the forests of Darny and using opaque glass-based material as a canvas, Legras reproduced wonderful landscapes and sweet, simple floral motifs.
See the touching, soulful landscapes on Legras vases in the gallery.
The enterprises produced ordinary glassware and glass for industry - which gave François-Théodore the freedom to develop his methods of producing art glass.
Intricately carved glass cameos, acid-etched and enamelled images requiring up to five separate firing processes to achieve the desired effect became a signature of Legras, many of which depict forested landscapes and the artistic director's favorite themes, irises.
Gallery with beautiful floral paintings by Francois Legras.
Subsequently, the artist's nephew Charles (whose expertise in chemically processing glass to produce marbled opaline surfaces onto which designs could be applied was highly valued) was to take over the management of the business in 1909, seven years before his uncle's death. .
Amazing landscape!
He was able to maintain a level of innovation that sustained the company for another decade, achieving notable success in the development of synthesized "gems". They could be crushed and added to molten glass to create extraordinary depths of color, which provided the basis for the production of striking cameo vessels.
A second nephew, Theodore, took over the company after Charles's death in 1922, but the quality and volume of production began to decline and production fell out of family control in 1928.
Thus, with the departure of the wonderful forester artist and glassblower, the production of works of art ceased. The era of poetic vases has sunk into oblivion.
