Musée Lalique - History And Current Exhibition

1. René Lalique © Lalique SA

The history of a man, a small

town and an heritage

The musée Lalique, a jewel in the forest, in the landscape of the Alsatian mountains and a small village, who became the house of this tradition, this maker and this region where glass making and glass tradition is still strong, nowadays.

The history of René Lalique (1860-1945)

René Lalique was born in the small village of Aÿ in the French region of Champagne in 1860, until he died at the age of 85 in Paris, just after the Second World War. During his career, a few elements stick out, the important of the art, the art making, the process, and the Art Nouveau Style which was developed in Nancy by numerous designers and architects.

During his whole career, René Lalique was deeply inspired by his environment and nature, as well as the forms of the female body, thus creating a new kind of jewelry combining gold, precious stones and materials little used at the time, such as horn, ivory, semi-precious stones, enamel and glass.

One of its first important client was Sarah Bernhardt, who between 1891 and 1894 bought a number of tiaras, necklaces and other stage accessories made and designed for her roles. Another muse will be Calouste Sarkis Gulbenkian, a financier, oil magnate and an important collector of jewelry. During a period of 21 years, he acquired one hundred and fifty jewels and artefacts, which can be admire today in his Foundation in Lisbon.

During those time, René Lalique presented his jewelry at the Universal Exhibition in 1900, his works were universally admired, earning him promotion to the rank of Officier de la Légion d’Honneur. But due to numerous orders from all over the world, there would be imitators of its style, and Lalique was far from flattered... He then decided to turn itself to a new career, a new horizon with glass making.

René Lalique, the designer

and the glass maker

2. Inside the factory of René Lalique in the 1920s © Lalique SA

His first experimentation with the glass date back to the 1890s, but he was mostly interested in the engraving and the designs of glass, rather than the material in itself. It would also give him a chance to create small artefacts, vases and sculptures using the cire perdue technique and the technique of blowing liquid glass in a mould.

The first mass produced product he made with glass was the production of perfume bottles, which opened up a new horizon to him. Thus, a new technological and commercial revolution was underway, and while they were mass produced, they were undoubtedly works of art.

From 1912 onward, Lalique decided to devote himself exclusively to glass and organised his final exhibition of jewellery and the general public discovered the master glassmaker.

His first inspiration

3. (Left) Femme ailée © Studio Y.Langlois - Musée Lalique - Coll. Privée - Par René Lalique en 1900

4. (Right) Fontaine Poissons © Lalique SA - Réédition en cristal d'une pièce créée par René Lalique en 1937

Two important inspirations are at the heart of the creative process or René Lalique: nature and the Art Deco spirit.

On one hand, his inspiration from nature, living creatures and the forms and structures of nature. Thus, he examined plants and flowers, studied water life, observed reptiles, birds and insects, then he adapts and composes them to create his jewelry inspired by the Art Deco spirit, with pure lines, ornamentation and shapes of plants, animals and women.

The glass makers of the region

Now, one question remained, why does René Lalique moved to Wingen-sur-Moder to create Lalique, his factory and his design?

The glassmaking tradition in the Northern Vosges is quite an important tradition and glassmaking business in the Pays de La Petite Pierre / Northern Vosges. This tradition dates back to the end of the fifteenth century, and while the start was not prosperous, the region provided master glassmakers with the raw materials they needed to practise their art such as sandstone, and forests which provided the fuel to heat their furnaces.

During the seventeenth century, and after the Thirty Years War and the wars of Succession, the region had an economic development and the glass sector enjoyed a renewed expansion and they settled in Meisenthal, Goetzenbruck and Saint-Louis in Lorraine, and Wingen and Hochberg in Alsace. Some of them manufactured bottles, clock glasses and sheet glass like the Hochberg glassworks (1715-1868).

As René Lalique arrived, he learned about the closure of the Hochberg glassworks, thus Lalique decided that the glass industry will be the reborn of Wingen-sur-Moder with the founding of the Verrerie d’Alsace. When he built his new factory, Lalique was already an exceptional jeweller, and now he was allowed to create whatever he wants in the field of glass.

As he created his first factory in Combs-la-Ville, it quickly could no longer keep pace with demand, thus after the Great War, René Lalique built a second production unit in Wingen-sur-Moder in Alsace. Since the region was a traditional glassmaking region, he knew that he would find the skilled labour he needed to practise his art and took advantage of incentives offered by the government, which was looking to make the freshly regained regions of Alsace and Moselle the showcases of France.

In 1923, the trademark V.D.A., for Verrerie d’Alsace, would be replaced by the traditional signature, R. Lalique. On the other side, the number of employees which at first, was around fifty, reached more than a hundred and fifty between 1924 and 1925 for the preparations of the Exhibition of Decorative and Industrial Arts.

The new generation

5. (Left) Marie-Claude Lalique © Lalique SA

6. (Right) Marc Lalique

Since the death of René Lalique, numerous heirs lead the factory, Suzanne Lalique (1892-1989) the daughter of René Lalique and Alice Ledru, Marc Lalique (1900-1977) the son of René Lalique and Alice Ledrun and finally Marie-Claude Lalique (1935 - 2003). Nowadays, the museum and the production are not lead by the family but by Lalique Company since 2008.

The current exhibition - Fauna

The current exhibition of the museum (Until the 5.11.2023) present works around the theme of "Fauna", and it present works from the collection of the Musée Lalique, Meisenthal and Saint-Louis in dialogue with themes, and animals.

In the exhibition, the three institutions present their depiction of the fauna, which since ancient times presents numerous animals such as swans, peacocks, horses, lions, deers, cats, dogs, snakes, fish and shells, which feed the imagination of artists for decades and centuries.

Artists, painters, sculptors and musicians created pieces inspired by them, due to their aesthetics and their symbolism, but also their colors. In the field of glass, the depictions of animals have been popular since the antiquity until the 19th century, most of the time animals we're represented liek their were or stylised depending on the current trensd and the techniques uses to create them.

The different sections of the exhibition are: birds, fish and swallows, reptiles and amphibians, domestic animals, insects and so on, thus showcasing the craftmanship and the observation of the nature of the surrounding of the glass factory, and how those founders and designers we're deeply link to the forms they saw in the wild.

Informations about the collection

Place: Musée Lalique

Ticket: Available at the front desk of the museum

Informations about the Musée Lalique

Musée Lalique

Rue du Hochberg

67 290 Wingen-sur-Moder

Phone: +33 03 88 89 08 14

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