Suntory Museum of Art
Exhibitions
Commemorating the 120th Anniversary of His Death Émile Gallé: Longing for Paris

Commemorating the 120th Anniversary of His Death
Émile Gallé: Longing for Paris

February 15 to April 13, 2025

*Download the list of changes in works on display
*There will be an exhibition change during the course of exhibition.
*This exhibition designates 10:00-11:00 as “Silent Viewing Hour” during which photography and conversation are prohibited.
*Photography is permitted in this exhibition except from 10:00 to 11:00.
*This is a traveling exhibition held at the Toyama Glass Art Museum from November 2, 2024, to January 26, 2025.

Émile Gallé (1846‒1904) was heir to his father’s business in Nancy, an ancient city in Lorraine in eastern France. That business manufactured and sold luxury glass and ceramics. Building on that background, Émile Gallé achieved success and a brilliant reputation by developing a unique world embodied in glass, ceramics, and furniture. Late in life, in 1901, he brought together a group of thirty-six local artists to found the École de Nancy, an alliance of professionals engaged in the industrial arts, of which he became the first chairman.
Gallé was a local celebrity, but the Gallé brand was known worldwide. His path to international success brought him to Paris, the capital, a city overflowing with the arts in which many wealthy customers were concentrated. While his company’s products continued to be produced in Nancy, as they were in his father’s generation, they were displayed in a showroom in Paris with consignment sales to the wealthy handled by a sales agent. Gallé himself frequently spent time in Paris, visiting the stores with which he did business. In 1878, 1889, and 1900, he presented new works at the Paris World Exposition (Paris Expo), an important international stage on which to introduce his products. From 1889 on, his ties to high society deepened and his reputation spread. However, he felt extreme, “almost unthinkable” pressure from the social dilemmas created by these ties. Just four years after the 1900 Paris Expo, Gallé died, succumbing to leukemia.
In this exhibition, we trace the development of Gallé’s creativity, focusing on his relationship with the much-admired Paris on which his reputation was built. A brilliant reputation, plus suffering, then further development.... we ask ourselves if Gallé’s success could have been
achieved anywhere else but on the stage provided by Paris, the world capital of art in his time. We welcome you to join us in this quest.

Works from the exhibition

Period

February 15 to April 13, 2025

Hours

10:00-18:00　*Friday 10:00-20:00

*Open until 20:00 on March 19 and April 12
*Last admission: 30 minutes before closing

Closed

Tuesdays

*Open until 18:00 on April 8

Admission

Adult	General ¥1,700	Advance ¥1,500
University and High School Student	General ¥1,000	Advance ¥800

Online Ticket Sales

Elementary, junior high school students and under are free.
*With a certificate of disability, the admission fee of a disabled person and a care-giver will be waived.
*Advance tickets will be available on the website from November 27, 2024 to February 14, 2025.

Discount

◇100 Yen Discount
•For presenting a ticket to a thematic exhibition at the National Art Center, Tokyo, or Mori Art Museum
•For parties of 20 or more

*Only one discount per person

Audio Guide

¥600

*Japanese audio guide only

Organized by

Suntory Museum of Art

Commemorating the 120th Anniversary of His DeathÉmile Gallé: Longing for Paris

SUNTORY MUSEUM of ART

Commemorating the 120th Anniversary of His Death
Émile Gallé: Longing for Paris