LOUIS HESTAUX – “NYMPHE, LIBELLULE ET CRAPAUD” MIRROR, CIRCA 1900

“NYMPHE, LIBELLULE ET CRAPAUD” MIRROR, CIRCA 1900
Sculpted pearwood and beveled mirror
Signed below
113 cm. high; 50 cm. wide

Exhibition
Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, 1914, n. 2388 in the exhibition catalogue
Louis HESTAUX – Collaborateur de Gallé, Musée de l’Ecole de Nancy, 1982, n. 69 in the exhibition catalogue

Provenance
Acquired directly from the artist’s family

A painter and wood carver, Louis Hestaux starts working for Emile Gallé at the age of 18 and soon becomes his closest and most trustful collaborator. He played a leading role in the design and conception of exceptional pieces of glass
and furniture which were exhibited at the Expositions Universelles of 1889 and 1900.
At Gallé’s death he became the firm’s artistic director. From 1882 until his death he exhibited for his own account paintings, drawings and carved wooden objects of symbolist inspiration and of rare beauty and artistic finesse.
He was a member of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts and a board director of the school of Nancy since its creation in 1901.