The year 1999 is a special one for Lorraine as it will be celebrating the centenary of the School of Nancy. Sarreguemines wished to associate itself with the plans of the Ecole de Nancy Mission to show the public its Art Nouveau treasures produced by the manufactures and artistic workshops of Lorraine.

In honour of this occasion, the Sarreguemines Museum of Faience has brought out of its reserves a collection of Art Nouveau ceramics for an exhibition displayed in three of the Museum's rooms so that visitors can admire thirty years of art history, which until now have been relatively unknown.

From Historicism to Art Nouveau

The decorative arts of the second half of the 19th century were deeply influenced by a return to past styles. It was the period of Neo-classicism and a taste for the Neo-Renaissance. The Jardin d'Hiver of the Faience Museum, built in 1880, is a perfect illustration of this trend. It has a monumental fountain in majolica, with a shape and decorative features borrowed mainly from the Renaissance (dolphins sculpted in the round, decor of candelabras ...).

Furthermore, as the end of the 19th century was marked by colonial expansion, bourgeois society was fascinated by the exoticism of Asia, the Far East and North Africa. As of 1860, the faience works of Sarreguemines produced objects of Persian inspiration and "chinoiseries".

However, during the same period, a few artists in Europe started to condemn copies of old objects and exotic pastiches in their effort to create a new style. For these artists, inspiration should no longer be drawn from the past but from nature. They were inspired mainly by Japanese art. The Jardin d'Hiver has two ceramic panels which display certain features of the Japanese manner - a narrow composition, vertical lines, light colours - and herald the Art Nouveau movement.

Decorative Panels

Ceramic panels were very popular at the end of the 19th century. Architects used them to decorate elegant homes, spas, shops, restaurants, railway stations, etc.

Narrative panels were produced in Sarreguemines between 1880 and 1930. They are mainly in china and covered in coloured glazes. The decorators, sometimes employees of the faience works and sometimes external collaborators, the most famous being Alexandre Sandier, Carl Schüller and Simas, often used the favourite themes of the emerging Art Nouveau, such as flowers and plants, women, and Japanese style decorative motifs. The Museum exhibits include "Herons by the Water", a panel depicting hollyhocks and poppies, and a seascape, forerunners of a new approach to the decorative arts.

Sometimes these themes were based on posters and adapted to a specific place. Posters were a highly successful mode of expression during this period, and the Sarreguemines faience works reproduced the famous "Le Boulevard" and "La Rue" by Théophile Steinlen in the form of panels. The Ville d'Avray panel, made for the Brasserie Mollard opposite the St Lazare railway station, portrays the railway boom and expansion of Parisian suburbs. In these works, the features inspired by Japanese art are mainly the large patches of colour, off-centre compositions, and a careful attention to detail.

Art as an Industry

Artists belonging to the Art Nouveau movement very soon recommended a return to craftsmanship, deploring industrial society and mass production. They set themselves the task of creating objects of a high quality, down to the tiniest detail. They also advocated art for everyone, claiming that the beautiful should no longer be the exclusive privilege of the richer classes of society. What they tried to initiate was a real reform of art and society. Yet their theories were contradictory and therefore contributed to their failure. The quality and beauty of the materials used involved high costs which meant that these objects were beyond the means of the middle classes.

This style spread through the increasingly popular art and decoration magazines, and the fashion tendencies they set in motion incited industrial centres to produce objects in the Art Nouveau style; this of course ran against the principles put forward by the artists. Sarreguemines produced elaborately shaped pieces, tables services, and toilet sets inspired by the French Art Nouveau, which was characterized by the use of the curve and counter-curve, whip-lash lines and assymetrical patterns.

At the same time, the faience works also made objects with geometrical lines, symmetrical decorative motifs and abstract floral patterns which reflected the German Art Nouveau movement, the Jugendstil. Sarreguemines was, after all, a German town after the signing of the Frankfurt treaty, and many designers attached to the factory had studied at art schools in Germany, especially the one in Munich. There was also close cooperation between the faience works and German artists during this period. An example is Ludwig Hohlwein, a famous interior architect, who made for Sarregueimines a number of pieces with very pure lines which already foreshadowed Art Deco; some examples now belong to the Museum's collection.

From 16 April to 27 September 1999
Open to the public every day from 10 a.m. to noon and from 2 to 6 p.m., and also on Tuesdays from the 1st of July.


Entrance fees : F.15 per adult
Groups of a minimum of 10 people : F.10
Free for children and students on presentation of their card.