INSECTS×SIMOSE—Contemporary Expressions of Insects

1. Vase

Emile Gallé

A long thin neck extends out from a low, round body.

Chrysanthemums and butterflies have been depicted using a combination of relief etching, enamel colors, and gold leaf, and the design—and the Yamato-e-inspired haze, in particular—suggests the influence of Japanese art.

Western chrysanthemums are single-flowered, but the chrysanthemums on this work are the double-flowered variety more common in the East.

In fact, Emile Gallé strongly associated chrysanthemums with Japan, as evidenced by a note he addressed to Tokuzo Takashima, in which he wrote that “there are many things I would like to ask you about the land of chrysanthemums.”

Tokuzo Takashima was a government official who later in life was also active as a painter under the name Hokkai Takashima.

He was sent by the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce for approximately three years to study forestry in Nancy.

For Gallé, who had long had an interest in Japanese art, his interactions with Takashima must have been extremely stimulating.

2. Cabinet (insect design)

Emile Gallé

In Emile Gallé’s works, both insects and plants are key elements of his designs.

Ever since his student days, Gallé was passionate about collecting plants from the plains and forests of Lorraine, France; and, while out collecting these plants, he must have frequently come into contact with insects.

This work features inlaid sunflowers, and carvings of moths, butterflies, snails, bees, and cicadas.

Hinges and other fittings have also been shaped after dragonflies and beetles.

Depicted larger than life and in grotesque detail, these creatures have an unusual presence.

As to why he began making furniture, Gallé explained that he had been drawn to the rich colors and woodgrain patterns of the wood, when seeking stands for his vases at stores selling precious wood stores.

He then started collecting wood, and joining pieces of wood into furniture; as his interest in furniture developed, he began to incorporate figurative depictions of nature into his works.

3. Vase (dragonfly design)

Emile Gallé

Émile Gallé had a deep affection for dragonflies, and in many of his designs he combined dragonflies and plants.

Gallé was drawn to the beauty of the dragonflies’ form.

He saw them as symbols of the transience of life, and also as embodying the different stages of life: from being dropped as eggs into the water, growing as larvae in boglands, and finally flying the skies as adults.

In this work, Gallé has covered a base layer of transparent glass with milk- and chestnut-colored frosted glass; after allowing it to corrode, he has then engraved the glass.

The vase is decorated with five dragonflies of varying sizes; their shapes interact with the fern leaf and stem patterns in a unified design.

The shape of the vase is distinctive: a thick neck protrudes from a swollen base, broadens as it approaches a decorative brand, and finishes with a straight lip.

Perhaps because of its shape, the dragonflies that decorate the vase appear subdued—almost as if they are hiding.

4. Vase (dragonfly design)

Daum Frères

Inspired by the success of Émile Gallé, the Daum brothers first attempted to make luxury artworks around 1891.

They both looked up to Gallé, and saw him as a rival.

The Daum brothers made rapid progress, even sharing a Grand Prix with Gallé at the 1900 Paris Exposition, and the competition between the creators helped raise the standard of glass art.

The combination of buttercups and dragonflies on this vase is one of the Daum brothers’ most popular designs, and was used on lamps and vessels of various shapes.

To create this design, a base layer of glass with light blue and purple mottling was fired, and a layer of green and yellow glass powder was baked on top; most of this top layer was then etched away, leaving the design in relief.

The head and body of the dragonfly are represented three-dimensionally, by melting multiple layers of glass together.

The dragonfly was a motif that Gallé repeatedly used in the latter years of his life.

However, in contrast to Gallé’s symbolic representation of the dragonfly, the Daum brothers directly incorporated natural scenes into their works, and so fully conveyed the insect’s physical beauty.

5. Vase (butterfly design)

Emile Gallé

Glass is characterized by its transparency.

Seeking to maximize this transparency, in glass art care was typically taken to eliminate impurities from the production process; the presence of impurities caused bubbles and mottling, which were regarded as faults.

However, Émile Gallé saw the decorative potential of these bubbles and mottling, and deliberately incorporated them into his works; in so doing, he expanded the expressive possibilities of glass.

Gallé created this vase in his later period; it consists of areas of purple and orange-colored glass layered on top of a transparent base.

He used marquetry techniques to decorate the trunk of the glass with three butterflies—in yellow, red, and purple.

Each of the butterflies have eyespots and other unique patterns on their wings; Gallé often incorporated butterflies and moths into his works, perhaps indicating a particular interest in the patterns on their wings.

Bubbles and speckles have been incorporated into the base glass, which also features engraved swirls; the butterflies are expertly shown fluttering in the air.

6. Chair

Emile Gallé

Émile Gallé studied the piano throughout his life, and this education no doubt helped him develop musical sensibilities.

Indeed, he is thought to have found inspiration for some of his works in his friendships with musicians and in his visits to the opera.

Gallé created these chairs in 1890.

Their backrests are inlaid with depictions of wild cherries and violins.

His vibrant depictions of the cherry branches and leaves and are richly poetic, and the viewer can almost hear the hum of the violin strings.

At the 1889 Paris World Expo, Gallé exhibited a group of dining chairs whose stiles were decorated with traditional molds in the shape of tuning pegs, whose backrests were shaped after Middle Age shields, each of which was inlaid with a depiction of a different plant.

These two chairs share a similar design theme to the World Expo exhibits.

In fact, the Simose Art Museum collection also possesses a chair made for the World Expo, which features two butterflies and a plant from the berry family.

Gallé had submitted works in the furniture category for the first time just one year earlier, at the 1889 fair; then, praised for his outstanding inlaying techniques, Gallé received the silver medal.

7. Meadows at Bazincourt, Autumn

Camille Pissarro

Camille Pissarro was one of the central figures of Impressionism.

He resided in various small, country towns across France—such as Pontoise and Montfoucalt—before moving permanently in 1884 to Éragny, a small village on the banks of the River Epte, where he devoted himself to painting.

This oil painting depicts Bazincourt, a village that stands on the opposite bank of the Epte.

To the bottom of the painting, a female farm-hand can be seen gathering hay, while houses can be seen dotted in the distance.

In this tranquil rural scene, Pissarro captured various conditions, including the season, time of day, and the weather—the reddening leaves, for example, hint at the imminent autumn.

After moving to Éragny, Pissarro dabbled in pointillism, influenced by younger painters.

However, realizing that this technique prevented him from capturing the ever-changing forms of nature, and from expressing the emotion it inspired in him, he soon turned back to Impressionism.

The way the canvas is built up with dabs of paint harks back to his pointillist experiences.

8. Dancer in a blue tutu

Henri Matisse

A dancer in a blue tutu sits on a bench. Drawn in thick black lines, her crossed legs are depicted with greater vigor than her upper body and give off a sense of immense power.

A vase filled with purple and yellow flowers stands beside her, adding color to the scene.

In 1941, at the age of 71, Henri Matisse underwent major surgery.

Resulting complications meant that he was frequently bedbound, but this by no means diluted his creative passions.

Around this time, Matisse predominantly created charcoal and pencil drawings that he could draw from his bed, rather than the more physically demanding oil painting.

Even when painting in oils, he gradually simplified the elements he included, and the lines and speed of his brushwork becomes more noticeable.

Matisse painted this work in the year after his surgery.

In contrast to the imposing figure of the dancer, he captures the texture of the tutu through vigorous, rhythmic brushwork, so bringing a sense of nimbleness and energy to the canvas.

9. Purple bouquet

Marc Chagall

Marc Chagall was one of the 20th century’s leading artists.

He is known for his many paintings inspired by his love for his first wife, Bella.

And for Chagall, a bouquet of flowers came to have a special meaning.

On July 7, 1915, on Chagall’s birthday, Bella celebrated his birthday by giving him a bouquet of flowers from the rowan tree.

The two married soon after, and a bouquet of flowers became for Chagall a symbol of love.

He often painted bouquets alongside scenes of his hometown of Vitebsk, Russia, or of embracing lovers.

A vase of purple flowers stands in the center of this painting.

The blue of the background represents the color of the sky and the sea in the south of France, where Chagall had an atelier.

A red donkey, a memory of his hometown, and a person, likely Bella, lie side-by-side in the bottom-left of the canvas.

Although his beloved Bella passed away during the Second World War, she lived on in his memory—and Chagall continued to paint her with artistic effects and colors that elicit great emotion.

10. Dicentra Spectabilis

Emile Gallé

Thought to have been created by Emile Gallé in his later years, this rare work is themed on the Asian bleeding heart flower—from its overall shape to the bold relief decoration on the front and the patterns engraved on the back.

Distinctive for its heart-shaped flowers, the Asian bleeding heart was often used by Emile Gallé in his designs, and the elaborateness of this vase’s design powerfully suggests just how taken he was by the flower’s unique ecology and lovely form.

Gallé died of leukemia on September 23, 1904, at the age of 58.

The following week, L’Illustration carried an obituary of Gallé together with a photograph of one of his Asian bleeding heart-themed vases.

The Shimose family called this work “The heart-shaped tear,” after the German name for the flower, and displayed it with great care in the middle of a large, altar-like cabinet made by Gallé.

11. Vase, “Rose of France”

Emile Gallé

Stalks covered with poisonous-looking dark-red buds and thorns cling to a warm-pink vase.

Known as “rosa gallica,” or the “Gallic rose,” in the Lorraine region of France, the Gallic rose only grows in the mountains on the outskirts of Metz, and it was used by Émile Gallé as a symbol of his love for his homeland.

After the Franco-Prussian War, the Lorraine region was ceded to Germany.

The Gallic rose that continued to grow there came to embody Gallé’s desire for France to recapture this land.

In his later years, Gallé created a large, footed cup decorated with a Gallic rose for Léon Simon, when he retired as chairman of the Central Horticultural Society of Nancy.

This was in homage to Simon who, after the conclusion of the Franco-Prussian War, had left his hometown of Metz, chosen to become a French citizen, and devoted himself to the research of roses.

This vase shares similarities of design with that cup, and its small, fleshy rose buds seem to encapsulate Gallé’s emotions.

12. Birds and child

Léonard Foujita

Léonard Foujita was a leading member of the School of Paris; yet he also worked as a war artist during the Second World War, making war paintings in Japan.

War paintings came to be condemned following Japan’s defeat, and Foujita himself also became the subject of criticism.

Foujita left Japan for France and became a French citizen.

He developed a fascination with children, and their blend of innocence and evil.

Foujita, who did not have children of his own, said: “The children in my paintings are my sons and my daughters—they are the children I want to love the most.”

He frequently painted children with large heads, slanted eyes, and doll-like features.

In this painting, Foujita depicts an innocent-looking girl who smiles as she carefully holds a parakeet.

He has returned to the detailed lines and youthful, porcelain-like, milky-white base colors which earned him admiration from the School of Paris.

The viewer can almost sense the warm gaze of the artist on the girl.

13. May

Léonard Foujita

Léonard Foujita is famed for his love of cats.

However, he also painted dogs, and in this work he has depicted a black poodle.

As the inscription shows, Foujita painted this work in Les Eyzies, in southwest France, in 1939.

This was his first visit to France for eight years, and he spent the summer in Les Eyzies, with his friend Genichiro Inokuma, due to the outbreak of the Second World War.

A mother dog lies in the center of the painting, while two small pups run and play beside her.

The painting is almost monochrome, and the painter has focused instead on accurately portraying the various textures—the hardness of the floor, for example, and the variations in the dogs’ fur.

While the mother attends watchfully to the unsteady steps of her pups, she also appears to have half a cautious eye on the viewer; perhaps her caution reflects Foujita’s own anxiety about the coming war.

14. Women peddler from Ohara

Ryohei Koiso

“Ohara girls” used in former times to walk around Kyoto selling firewood.

Dressed in black, short-sleeved kimonos with red obi belts, in white undergarments, white coverings on the backs of their hands, and white cloths on their heads, they were instantly recognizable.

For this painting, Ryohei Koiso dressed a studio model in the garb of an Ohara girl.

The composition is unusual—he has filled a single painting with the same girl in different aspects, as if she were rotating: facing to the left, facing the viewer directly, facing to the right—and also standing in the background.

Koiso started painting such compositions in the second half of the 1950s, when he began exploring Cubist designs.

This is an extremely experimental work, evident not only in his use of bold and contrasting lines, but also in his calculated color placement.

15. Wind

Matazo Kayama

This work depicts a Himalayan cat, and shares a similar composition to “Oto (Sound),” which Matazo Kayama also painted in 1982.

From its title, “Kaze (Wind),” we can infer that a slight breeze has blown in the painting.

The cat’s ears and whiskers are alert, its front legs and tail tense; though hidden by its long, soft fur, tension is also palpable in the arch of its back.

Kayama began painting cats in the 1960s.

He initially portrayed short-haired Siamese cats with nervous dabs of paint, but in the second half of the 1970s he started depicting Himalayans, and his harsh style gradually softened.

Nevertheless, he continued to paint the eyes of his cats a piercing blue, appearing to eye up prey with unchanging acuity.

16. The blue sun

Matazo Kayama

It is at first glance hard to discern the subject of this painting; upon closer inspection, we can see it is an emaciated and dehydrated crow that is clasping the leafless tree, gazing down.

The crow is blind and cries loudly, its beak wide open.

The brutally cold, snow-filled sky of northern Japan fills the background, the massive sun in the center of the painting spits out darkly burning flames, and an impressive bleakness pervades the painting.

What prompted Matazo Kayama to paint such a work?

After the Second World War, the idea gained traction that nihonga—the traditional form of Japanese painting—would die out; this was a time when painters were desperately searching for new forms of expression in nihonga.

Influenced by painters such as Bruegel, Kayama began painting birds and other animals set in vast, open tracts of nature, and fashioned a new, more emotional style of painting.

In the unpredictable aftermath of the war, Kayama faced financial hardship—and this painting appears to capture his worries and suffering.

17. Prayer

Yasuo Kazuki

Yasuo Kazuki’s “Siberia Series” of paintings is based on his experiences as an internee in Siberia.

Having been mobilized to Manchuria during the Second World War, he was taken by Soviet forces in 1945 to the bitterly cold region of Siberia.

During his internment, whenever a fellow internee died, Kazuki would sketch their face in the corner of a piece of paper—but in the end, these drawings were confiscated by the Soviets.

He served two years of forced labor before returning to Japan.

The center of this painting shows a human face and hands painted in coarse black paint.

The flesh has fallen from his face, his eyes have hollowed, his cheekbones protrude, and his hands are joined in prayer.

It is closely related to another in the Siberia Series, entitled “Nehan (Nirvana).”

“Nehan” depicts many of his former fellow internees on a single canvas, but this painting, “Prayer,” focuses on just one of them.

In it, we can see Kazuki’s profound grief and sorrow for his former friends.

18. Vase with hawk design, underglaze blue

Rosanjin Kitaoji

Rosanjin Kitaoji was both chef and potter.

He prepared delicious food, and he served it on appropriately beautiful tableware that he himself had made.

In 1925, he opened “Hoshigaoka saryo,” a members-only traditional Japanese restaurant, in Tokyo; he then built the Hoshigaoka kiln in Kamakura, to the south of Tokyo, where he began making the tableware that would accompany his foods.

His ceramics were wide-ranging in style, and included dishes modeled after Shino, Oribe, Shigaraki, Bizen, and Seto ware from Japan, as well as blue and white and colored porcelains from China.

Kitaoji created this Chinese-style blue and white vase using a technique he had learned from Seika Suda, a ceramicist from Yamashiro, Ishikawa Prefecture.

In confident, dynamic brushstrokes, Kitaoji has depicted a fierce-looking hawk that looks as if it will tear the flesh of its prey asunder at any moment.

He has left large areas of porcelain uncolored, which represent the sky, and attained a wonderful balance between stillness and movement.

19. Emile Gallé’s Garden

Emile Gallé

Emile Gallé had a powerful attraction to nature, and developed a unique form of expression that centered on plant and insect designs.

He created a vast garden at his home in Nancy, France, which housed greenhouses, wetlands, vegetable patches and orchards.

It is said to have contained close to 3,000 species of plants, including varieties indigenous to Japan.

Gallé found inspiration for his works in this treasure trove of wildlife, and also used it to learn more about the mysteries of nature.

The Emile Gallé Garden at the Simose Art Museum was designed to showcase the plants and flowers that appears in Gallé’s artworks.

Containing a pond, a pergola, and a boardwalk, it was also made to enable flora native to Hiroshima to flourish.

In spring, visitors can see Asian bleeding hearts and wallflowers bloom; in summer, East Asian yellow water lilies and other varieties of water lilies can be observed flowering on the pond; autumn crocuses reemerge to flower in autumn; in winter, daffodils color the water’s edge.

In the Emile Gallé Garden, visitors will no doubt chance upon butterflies and dragonflies; they are encouraged to enjoy nature, which exerted such a positive influence on Gallé and his works, to their hearts’ content.