Henri Bergé

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Henri Bergé
Born	14 October 1870 Diarville
Died	26 November 1937 Nancy
Nationality	French
Known for	Designer, illustrator, paintor
Movement	Ecole de Nancy, Art Nouveau
Signature

Henri Bergé (October 14, 1870 – October 26, 1937) was a French designer and illustrator part of the Art Nouveau movement.^[1]

The son of a lace manufacturer, Henri Bergé received an artistic education at l'École des Beaux-Arts in Nancy, France, where he was a student of the painter Jules Larcher.^[2]

In 1897, he joined Daum, a crystal studio based in Nancy, and became a leader in decorative glass. Bergé became head decorator, replacing Jacques Gruber.^[3]

He is mostly known for his Floral Encyclopedia, which brought together his studies of plants for the Daum's manufacturing of art glass and crystal objects.^[4]

Henri Bergé was long associated with the École de Nancy, also named "the provincial alliance of the industries of art", which was born from the collaboration of the main actors and promoters of Lorraine decorative arts. Émile Gallé was its president, while Louis Majorelle, Antonin Daum, and Eugène Vallin were vice presidents. Upon its creation on February 13, 1901, Bergé was one of the members of the steering committee alongside other notable local figures, including Jacques Gruber, Louis Hestaux, Charles Fridrich and Victor Prouvé.^[5]

Mainly known for his drawings, Bergé followed the values held by the École de Nancy and taught in several schools during his career. In 1894, he supervised the lessons of the Daum modeling and drawing house school. In 1895, he took over as co-director of the school alongside Jacques Gruber.^[6]

Afterwards, Bergé became "Director of Decor Learning Lessons". He therefore succeeded Jacques Gruber as master decorator within the Daum manufacture. He was responsible for the creation of pieces (designing shapes and serial but also unique parts) and the creation and control of the pouncing patterns.^[6]

Bergé worked with Antonin Daum until his death in 1937; the designer was also a professor at other institutions. He gave lessons at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts but also at the Ecole professionnelle de l'Est in Nancy, a school for applied arts. Its goal was to compete with the Beaux-Arts schools, where teaching no longer meets the needs of industrial art. During the World War I, Bergé also taught at the Henri-Poincaré high school.^[6]

Bergé's works show a precise study of plants. Christophe Bardin describes Henri Bergé's observational work as "a direct observation of nature by travelling the surrounding countryside or using the botanical gardens and greenhouses of Nancy to discover more exotic species, followed by a drawing work". ^[7]

Bergé often visited the botanical garden of Sainte Catherine and the greenhouse of the nurseryman Victor Lemoine in Nancy.^[6] In addition, Bergé was a member of the central horticultural society of Nancy.^[8] This society played a major role for the artists of the École de Nancy, who were strongly influenced by nature.

Much like some members of the École de Nancy, such as Louis Majorelle or Eugène Corbin, Bergé also used photography in addition to his drawing to help his creative work. This practice allowed him to create models with great naturalism. These photographs could have been taken either outdoors or in a studio, for example, by isolating a plant on a neutral background. A series of photographic plaques were discovered in the house of Suzanne Bergé, the artist's daughter.^[9]

As the artistic director of the factory, Henri Bergé was an essential collaborator in the Daum company. Daum's goal was to produce decorative pieces in a more industrial manner by mass-copying patterns. Bergé developed a unique way of affixing his drawings to the pieces. He created pouncing patterns. On tracing paper, he adapted a reusable pouncing pattern for the factory's decorators.^[6] They could then saw the guidelines to follow while creating the vase. This was a practical and economical technique that allowed mass production of Bergé's patterns.^[10]

The diffusion of Bergé's models was also incorporated into his lessons at the Daum School. It was also through the study of leaves and flowers made by the artist that the student's learned how to draw. The same leaf and flower study techniques were leveraged for other establishments where the professor taught.^[6]

The works designed by Bergé represented the majority of the objects exposed by Daum during the Universal exhibition in 1900 in Paris.^[11]

In 40 years of activity within the Daum manufacture, Bergé built up a veritable collection of plants and floral motifs that he brought together in his Floral Encyclopedia. It was used as a source of motifs by the Daum manufacture until the 1920s.^[11]

Bergé's drawings reflect the period's taste for Japonisme, the attraction of nature and volute and arabesque shapes.^[6]

Bergé demonstrated dedicated scientific rigor.^[12] In his art, it is possible to find many details, such as fruits, seeds, or even the different stages of flower blossoming. Some plates are sometimes accompanied by scientific indications and/or descriptions.^[13]

Even if Bergé's production faithfully reflected nature, he never conceived his work as a true work of art. It does not seek the completeness of an encyclopedia. Its aims were mainly industrial. Its objective was the constitution of a stylistic fund to serve "beautiful functional models" to the Daum's workers.^[6]

Bergé collaborated with Amalric Walter, who used his naturalist repertoire to make his glass pastes. Indeed, the production of Amalric Walter, largely inspired by the work of Bergé at Daum, was characterized by art nouveau pieces highlighting fauna and flora.^[14]

Bergé did not hesitate to cast some insects and small animals for his collaboration with Amalric Walter.^[2]

This collaboration was so important that in 1925, during the International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts in Paris, Henri Bergé received a gold medal for his work with Walter.^[15]

Examples of works created during this collaboration

• 
  Butterfly paperweight, Amalric Walter and Henri Bergé, ca.1925
• 
  Plate, Amalric Walter and Henri Bergé, ca.1919-1925, glass, New-York, MET

• Henri Bergé produced numerous advertisements (e.g. for the Maison d'art de Lorraine) printed by Albert Begeret in Nancy, and subsequently printed by the Modern Graphic Art.^[16]

  

• He also illustrated advertisements for the old French stores chain called the Magasins réunis in Nancy.
• Bergé created several Art Nouveau stained-glass windows. Some were advertising stained glass windows such as in the brewery located on the ground floor of the Cure d'Air Trianon in Malzéville. The window panels presented the major beverage brands sold at the brewery.^[17] Other stained-glass were more symbolic works of art, such as La Lecture preserved in the collection of the musée de l'École de Nancy.^[18]
• Bergé also collaborated with Amalric Walter, a French glass-maker, and gave him several models, which Walter then used to make handcrafted glass pastes.^[19]
• Henri Bergé produced watercolor studies which represented plants. These studies were grouped together in his Floral Encyclopedia. A collection of 85 of Bergé's drawings are kept at the musée de l'École de Nancy. It was donated to the museum by the Pont-à-Mousson company in 1988^[20]

• 
  Rosehip fruits study, Henri Bergé, musée de l'École de Nancy
• 
  Hepatica study, Henri Bergé, Musée de l'École de Nancy
• 
  Alkekengi study, Henri Bergé, 1905, musée de l'École de Nancy
• 
  Clematis study n°32, Henri Bergé, musée de l'École de Nancy
• 
  Morning glory flower study n°62, Henri Bergé, Musée de l'École de Nancy