Enamelled Plate On Lava.

Enameled lava depicting undergrowth: production of the Maison Gillet treated like a painting. The process of painting on lava, invented in 1827, experienced, with the Maison Gillet, its hour of glory in the second half of the 19th century. It provided the means for a more colorful architecture, a direction that was expressed under the Second Empire. The architect Ignace Hittorf (1792-1867), a precursor, used it in the form of his immense paintings at Saint-Vincent de Paul, in Paris, in 1860. Numerous awards at universal exhibitions recognized the excellence of the production of François Gillet (1822-1889) and then of his son Eugéne (1859-1938). The latter collaborated with the emblematic architect of Art Nouveau Hector Guimard on the entrances to the Paris metro. Initially designed to illuminate architecture, the production will be declined in decorative plaque to adorn furniture and even in the form of real paintings. The plaque presented here falls into this last category and the painter called to collaborate signed with his initials a creation which rivals the finesse of decorative earthenware.