The Coprins lamp and its production run: a reassessment.
The Coprins lamp and its production run: a reassessment.
Some new evidence on the chronology of Émile Gallé’s masterpiece and its number of specimens.
A scarce masterpiece shrouded in mystery
The Coprins lamp stands among the most renowned glass creations of Émile Gallé, at least when it comes to lighting fixtures. It has been featured in numerous Gallé exhibitions, while its iconic status has been confirmed over the years by its appearances on books or magazines’ covers, as well as the forgers’ attempts to replicate its design. And yet, precious little information is available on the genesis of this artwork, as well as on the number of copies made and the duration of their production run.
It is a so instantly recognisable design that a description feels almost superfluous. The lamp, a sculpture of filigreed and cased glass, presents itself as a cluster of three giant mushrooms, probably of the Inky cap species (Coprinopsis atramentaria), towering at 83 cm for the tallest one. The mushrooms, sprouting from a leaf shaped mount fixed on a wrought-iron base, represent three stages of development, as shown by their unequal sizes, their variations in hues and the different shape and appearance of their respective caps. The smallest is the youngest, its cap unopened still; the middle one is in its prime and fully shaped; the tallest one has a darker, wider cap with a ragged rim, sign of its alteration in its old age.1 The commonest interpretation of the design makes it a metaphor of the three ages of men, infancy, maturity and old age. Nuances come from the added symbolism perceived by some authors, whether it is of sexual nature, with its sensual and suggestive form, or a memento mori with its image of inevitable decay, as one of the last masterworks of a dying artist.2
The circumstances at the origin of the artwork remain a mystery, for the most part. Janine Bloch-Dermant was the first, it seems, to put forward the information that the lamp was designed as a complement for some forest-themed dining-room furniture.3 This seductive idea has been followed since, despite lacking any supporting evidence. The only known detail about its making comes from the catalogue of the École de Nancy exhibition in Strasbourg, in 1908, where Louis Hestaux, Paul Nicolas and Paul Holderbach are named as collaborators of Émile Gallé in this endeavour. There is a drawing of a Coprinus cluster, signed by Louis Hestaux, in the Gallé archives of the Musée d’Orsay, but it’s related to a vase series, rather than to the lamp.4
Claims about the number of existing genuine copies of the lamp have varied from three (Garner 1977) to eight (Le Tacon 1998). In fact, five specimens of the lamp, whose authenticity is not contested, belong to public or private museum institutions today:
The Musée de l’École de Nancy, in France, has had one for the longest time, acquired in a public sale in 1956, which makes it a recent enough acquisition compared to the core of its Gallé collection coming from the 1900–1904 purchases by the original museum or the Corbin donation from 1935.
The Kitazawa Museum of Art, in Tokyo, Japan.
The Suntory Museum of Art, in Tokyo, Japan.
The Yumin Art Collection on Jeju island, in South Korea: it claims to have the best preserved specimen, apparently acquired in the 1980s, around the same time as the private museums in Japan.
The Wiesbaden Museum, in Germany, with the Ferdinand Wolfgang Neess collection recently opened to visitors (2017).
It is striking that none of the leading European decorative or applied arts museums in Émile Gallé’s time made the effort to acquire one. This is perhaps a clue as to the scarcity of this piece, but also an indication of its perceived place in the artist’s body of work. There are probably others in private collections. The Coprins featured in early international Gallé studies and exhibitions came from the Robert and Johanna Walker collection, in England. A damaged copy (it is claimed) was sold at the breathtaking price of $1,200,000 by Sotheby’s in New York in 1989, and it held for two years the record price of a Gallé artwork5. I do not know if it’s the same one or if it’s one of the already mentioned specimens.
The Coprins in early public exhibitions of Émile Gallé’s art
The Coprins lamp was featured in several exhibitions in the years following its creation. However, it was notably absent from the École de Nancy exhibition for the Union Centrale des Arts Décoratifs in the Pavillon de Marsan in 1903, judging from the available accounts and photographs, in particular the Guérinet album6 — the official illustrated catalogue is not helpful on the matter, listing only some “applications du décor au service de la table et à l’éclairage” without further precision7. This is particularly troubling because the two plates from the Guérinet album depicting the Gallé lamps on display in this exhibition are by far the most comprehensive available on the matter for any Gallé exhibition, with 12 different designs. It’s hard not to conclude that the Coprins was therefore not displayed in the Pavillon de Marsan, and it even casts some serious doubt on its existence at that date. Why would have Gallé omit one of his (soon to be celebrated) latest creations in this exhibition that was promised to showcase the very best of his art?
The Coprins lamp was, on the other hand, displayed on the small Ombellules pedestal table, in the Exposition d’art décoratif lorrain, held in Salle Poirel, in Nancy, in October 1904, mere weeks after Émile Gallé’s death. It immediately made a deep impression, judging from its mentions in the exhibition’s reviews8, and above all by the wide circulation enjoyed by the photograph of this display, which should be considered the oldest-known picture, or at least the oldest published one, of this artwork. The Coprins was thus the leading illustration of Roger C. d’Einvaux’s review of the exhibition, published in L’Art décoratif (February 1905)9.
The same photograph of the Coprins lamp featured in several of Émile Gallé’s obituaries in 1905, both in France (in La Lorraine artiste by Édouard Bour)10 and abroad (in Kunst and Künstler by Emil Hannover)11, as a testimony of its impact on the public and the art critics at that time. The fact that it was a very recent artwork most certainly played a part in the selection of this photograph for these obituaries.
The lamp was also probably still in display at the time of these obituaries’ publication, since there was a last, posthumous, participation of Émile Gallé at the annual Salon of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, in April-May 1905. The official catalogue gives a short generic description of this display, but it does note that it was a special exhibition of Émile Gallé’s works, including lamps12. The available photographs show three table lamps, and they do not include the Coprins13; but, as we’ll see below, there exists some strong evidence suggesting that it was part of this special exhibition.
Later, as it’s been already noted, the lamp was part of the Gallé offering in the Exposition d’art décoratif by the École de Nancy, in Strasbourg, in March-April 190814. The catalogue not only names the Coprins among the four most remarkable lamps on display (suggesting with “etc.” there were others), and gives the identity of Gallé’s collaborators in their designing and making, Louis Hestaux and Paul Nicolas, presumably as the composers, and Paul Holderbach, as the modeler. It also indicates, what’s been frequently overlooked, that these models were previously presented in the Exposition universelle in 1900, and in the Exposition de Nancy in 1904. There is no mention of the Exposition de l’École de Nancy in 1903, despite its rich selection of lamps. Although this is yet another argumentum ex silentio, it strengthens the overall picture of the artwork’s creation date as a late one. This was, until now, the last known mention of the Coprins in a Gallé exhibition from the early 20th c.
A provisional conclusion on the Coprins’ original date
On this evidence, there is no agreement among Gallé experts and historians on the date of the design’s creation, except that it belongs to the glass master’s last years, from 1902 to 1904. In her seminal biography of Émile Gallé, Françoise-Thérèse Charpentier, who briefly mentions the “quatre ou cinq authentiques «champignons» éclos sur feuille de bronze, de la main de Gallé et tous différents”, by contrast with the generic so-called mushroom-shaped lamps, does not venture a date15. She’s suggesting that the 1903 exhibition was the introductive venue for Gallé’s creations in the field (after a few experiments in 1900), but, as we’ve already seen, the Coprins wasn’t presented there – or at least, there is no proof that it was.
Later, in the chronological order of the bibliography, Philippe Garner dates it from 190416, William Warmus, who gives the most detailed analysis of all in his catalogue entry, from “about 1902”, Philippe Thiébaut from 1903, while François Le Tacon places it “circa 1902”, and Alastair Duncan and Georges de Bartha “around 1902”17, just to name the main contributors to the question. The catalogue of the Musée de l’École de Nancy stays equally evasive, leaning toward an early date with “vers 1902“18, and, being the leading authority on the matter by virtue of harbouring the premium collection of Gallé glass, has won the consensus.
What transpires from this quick review of the proposed dates, though, is that the question remains an open one to this day. Unless I am missing something, there is no writing from Émile Gallé describing the project nor is there any graphical document depicting it, outside the October 1904 photograph. The main clue – the only one, perhaps? – pointing to a date earlier than the second half of 1903 (i.e., after the Pavillon de Marsan exhibition) for its creation is a letter from Émile Gallé to his factory’s director, Émile Lang, in January 1902, stating that he’s working full on, albeit belatedly, on some lighting fixtures’ projects19. This is confirmed by a letter to his wife, Henriette, a few days later, on the 27th January 1902, where he’s specifically writing about designing electrical tulips and shades, after having studied the existing makes in France and Germany20. But, while this second letter does confirm that Émile Gallé is set on developing his company’s offer of luminaries at this stage, it stops well short of hinting at a project as ambitious as the Coprins lamp. It follows that, barring some new information of course, the circa 1902 date should probably be revised to “no earlier than the 1903 Spring” or circa 1903-1904.