Stained glass signed Decorchemont (1880-1971)

Large and exceptional stained glass window by François Décorchemont. Made of glass paste colored in the mass and worked in relief. Blackened metal frame, cement joints. It was exhibited at the Salon des Artistes décorateurs in 1934. This very rare stained glass window is part of Décorchemont’s first research in the field of stained glass, before the adventure of the stained glass windows of the Saint-Odile Church, in Paris (17th arrondissement).

Signed and dated 1934

François Émile Décorchemont (1880-1971) was a French ceramist and master glassmaker. Coming from a family of artists, he studied at the National School of Decorative Arts in Paris, and then produced many objects in glass paste which brought him notoriety. Decorchemont invents a new material, crystal paste. In the spring of 1912, François Décorchemont presented for the first time at the Salon des Artistes décorateurs, then at the Salon des Artistes français, a set of pieces that testified to a new path taken by the artist. The thick and translucent walls, powerful and luminous, of these creations contrasted with the extreme finesse and opacity of the models which, since 1903, the date of his debut, characterized his glass works.

From 1909, while maintaining his production of fine glass paste, François Décorchemont began experimenting with a new molding technique. With the help of his father, Louis-Emile Décorchemont (1851-1920), sculptor, collaborator of Jean-Léon Gérôme and professor of sculpture at the National School of Decorative Arts in Paris, he undertook to adapt the process to glass. lost wax casting. At the same time, he experimented with a new composition of vitrified paste ensuring transparency and light. With a sensitivity close to the creations of Albert Dammouse, the creations of Décorchemont are however distinguished by the refusal to mold natural elements from nature and by a desire for sculptural effects highlighting the shapes and constructive lines of its decorations. This new conception of ornament and this quest for a thick and translucent material, in a perspective that is no longer just decorative but also constructive, is in line with the contemporary research of René Lalique, whose technical advances during the 1910s are part of the same desire for aesthetic renewal.

A fervent Catholic, it was while attending his village church, which has Renaissance stained glass windows, that the idea came to him to apply his technique to the art of stained glass in the 1930s. François Décorchemont then developed a unique technique for designing stained glass not in painted glass but in colored glass paste. His new activity began with the construction of the Sainte-Odile church in Paris, for which he produced 300 m2 of glass roofs. At the end of the war, he worked mainly in the Eure, where he installed no less than 130 stained glass windows distributed in around thirty churches, including the remarkable ensembles of Beuzeville, Etrépagny or Ménesqueville. François Décorchemont also intervened at the Saint-Wandrille Abbey in Saint-Wandrille-Rançon (Seine-Maritime), at the former Folie Couvrechef convent in Caen and at the parish church of Fontaine-Henri (Calvados).

Very discreet and not very communicative, François Décorchemont keeps his discoveries and his techniques secret. Painter, ceramist, glassmaker, he creates all of his works himself, the drawing, the mold, the finish. His work is characterized by a refined drawing, with simple lines and by the brilliance, transparency and luminosity of the colors. His creations have no functional value but only aesthetic value due to their fragility and production cost. He published his works in small series and did not seek performance but aesthetics.