Rene Jules Lalique began an apprenticeship for the well-known Parisian jeweler, Louis Aucoq. After attending the Sydenham Art College in London, England from 1878-1880, Lalique returned to France and began designing jewelry for top firms such as Cartier and Boucheron.
Early in his career, Lalique’s work was recognized for its Art Nouveau style, characterized by the use of naturalistic motifs and patterns with flowing, curved lines. Nymphs, peacocks, and dragonflies. By the 1920s, the Art Deco style had begun to emerge, and Lalique’s designs reflected this change. Art Deco themes also included natural forms, but these were often highly stylized and geometrically precise.
The New York Times online 6/23/2011: Suddenly, Lalique Is Back in Vogue
During his career, Rene Lalique took advantage of what were, at the time, the most modern techniques available. With the aid of more advanced technology and equipment, Lalique was able to produce multiple glass wares simultaneously. Lalique utilized assembly lines and reusable molds to manufacture his glass designs by
the thousands. Despite being machine-manufactured, Lalique’s glass and jewelry maintained its quality and handmade appearance. Since it was much less expensive to produce, Lalique glass was often affordable to the general public.
After Rene Lalique’s death in 1945, his son, Marc Lalique, took over the company. Today, Rene Lalique’s grand-daughter, Marie Claude Lalique, is the firm’s head designer. Lalique continues to produce beautiful jewelry and decorative glass and has stores located around the world. The value of vintage Lalique glass has steadily risen over the years due to its growing popularity among collectors.
| View a selection of items on display in the exhibit René Lalique - Art Deco Glass. By clicking on the controls, you can manipulate the viewer. To see the exhibit in full screen, click the far right icon. These and many more items are on display in the Hallway Gallery. |
History of the Hallway Gallery
When the library opened in 1904, it included a lecture auditorium on the third floor. An excerpt from the book Henry Rosenberg, 1824 - 1893: to Commemorate the Gifts of Henry Rosenberg to Galveston describes the intent and usage of the auditorium.
"It is intended that [...] free lectures shall embrace a wide range of subjects of general interest, and be of such a high order of merit as to attract and interest the thoughtful and the studious. Our lectures are intended to be instructive, real food for the intellectual life, and are not to be regarded as entertainments; yet they are intended to be interesting and popular in the best sense. It is regarded as of special importance that a lecturer should first of all have something to say that is worth while, and also important that he should, in addition, know how to say it in an interesting and reasonably acceptable manner.
"The lectures (now some twenty-five or thirty a year) are given during the winter season, in the library lecture hall, seating seven hundred people, generally in the evening at eight o'clock. Some of the afternoon lectures have been given for children. That these lectures are highly valued is abundantly shown by the well-sustained interest and large attendance during all these fourteen years. […]The Library has had during the fourteen years about 125 different lecturers, and about 310 lectures have been given, with a total attendance of over 145,000, averaging more than 450 at each lecture."
In 1952, the third floor was remodeled by Raymond Rapp, Jr, and according to the Galveston Daily News of September 11, 1968, the auditorium was removed to provide "space for use of audio-visual materials and archival materials." In 1967, the Fox Rare Book Room and the Marion Lee "Sandy" Kempner Memorial Room were installed. Lectures and events were moved to the newly built Moody Wing which opened in 1971 on the lower floor in what was named the Wortham Auditorium until Hurricane Ike flooded the entire first floor of the library in September 2008.
After the hurricane, the area that was once occupied by the original auditorium, reduced by the area of the Fox and Morgan rooms and "Sandy's Room," was transformed by Rosenberg Library Museum's Collections Manager at the time, Nikkie Ferre, into another beautiful gallery, with special lighting to enhance the room.
As with the other third floor galleries, exhibits are rotated on a periodic basis.
