The Pasteur Museum is lending the Pasteur Vase, created by Émile Gallé in 1892 for Louis Pasteur's 70th birthday, for the exhibition "L'étrange cas de Monsieur Gallé" at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Nancy from October 21, 2026 to February 27, 2027. The loan is the ideal opportunity to look back at the history of this landmark glass sculpture.
 

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A unique commission

In 1892, students and professors at the École normale supérieure in rue d'Ulm wanted to pay tribute to Louis Pasteur during the celebrations for his 70th birthday on December 27, which were to be held in the main lecture hall at the Sorbonne. When choosing an artist for this tribute, one name stood out: Émile Gallé (1846-1904), the master glassmaker from Nancy, a distinguished botanist and key figure in the Art Nouveau movement and laureate of the Grand Prix at the Paris Exposition in 1889.

The choice was not a random one. Presenting Pasteur with a crystal sculpture would be an allusion to his early research on the crystallization of tartaric acid. And in their own words, those commissioning the sculpture wanted to "crystallize their thoughts."[1] 
Louis and Marie Pasteur also already had several glass sculptures by Gallé in their apartment.
 

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Gallé, an alchemist and researcher

For this commission, Gallé immersed himself in Pasteur's microbiology discoveries with the same dedication as a scientist in the lab. In a letter to Edmond Taigny dated January 2, 1893, Gallé described his work, using plays on words to allude to Pasteur's discoveries: "At the moment, I am brewing, I am sowing ferments in the veins of a piece of crystal, for Mr. Pasteur. I am growing cultures in crucibles, simulating bacilli and viruses (discovered in the molten glass) and capturing vibrios in the translucent surface. Pray that this ultra-modern decor will not give rise to rabid criticism, shatter the gemstone or fracture the prestigious cup that the École normale was so keen to commission for the eminent scholar."[2]

The scale of the research undertaken by Gallé delayed the delivery of the vase, and it was not ready for the ceremony on December 27, 1892. It was presented to Louis Pasteur on April 30, 1893 at the École normale supérieure, together with a ten-page explanatory document written by Gallé himself and published the following May in the Revue encyclopédique.[3]

 

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A major work in the Art Nouveau tradition

The Pasteur Vase is a triple-layered blown crystal piece on a bronze stand. It is designed as an allegory of science triumphing over disease. It is flared in shape, and the dark tones towards the base lighten gradually towards the opening. The decoration is a symbolic voyage from darkness to light, from ignorance to scientific discovery. The vase combines poetic symbolism with scientific rigor, based around four themes:

-    Battling scourges and disease
A dog frothing at the mouth and a dragon spewing flames symbolize the terror of incurable rabies before Louis Pasteur developed his vaccine. A seven-headed python evokes the water monster Hydra in reference to the hydrophobia stage of the disease, its heads representing chains of streptococci and staphylococci. 

-    Imagery and scientific tools
For the first time in the history of glass art, laboratory equipment was used as an artistic motif. A microscope and petri dish are engraved with remarkable precision. Microorganisms, bacteria and yeast are reproduced in detail in the glass, giving visible form to the invisible world discovered by Pasteur.

-    Life in the face of death
The vase symbolizes the universal combat between destructive and creative forces. Motifs of mold and decomposing organisms allude to Pasteur's work on fermentation and his rebuttal of the spontaneous generation theory. The use of red glass and droplets symbolizes human suffering in the face of disease, but also the triumph of life saved by vaccination.

-    Rebirth of nature and literary allusions
True to his Art Nouveau style and passion for botany, Gallé incorporated a poetic dimension. Brambles and thorns give way to plants, symbolizing rebirth and healing. The vase also includes two extracts by Victor Hugo, the first from the poem Les Contemplations: "One will see the herd of formidable hydra / Leave, rise from the bottom of the unfathomable mists / And be transfigured" and the second from the poem Les Malheureux: " [...] I go / Meditating, and always an instinct brings me back / To know the depths of human suffering."

The interior of the vase reveals what Gallé himself referred to as the "inoculation of glass": additions of colored crystal forming delicate branches and strands, simulating the stirrings of microscopic life within the material itself.

 

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A unique loan to the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Nancy

Usually on display in the Grand Salon of the apartment that once belonged to Louis and Marie Pasteur, the Pasteur Vase is now back in the city where its maker was born and worked. This loan brings together two figures who left their mark on an era: Louis Pasteur, founder of the Institut Pasteur, recognized as a "benefactor of humanity" for his major contributions to science; and Émile Gallé, a leading figure of the Art Nouveau movement and founder of the École de Nancy.

 

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If you are interested in the latest museum news, have any questions or are in possession of any technical or scientific objects that can provide clues to the past activities of the Institut Pasteur's laboratories, feel free to contact the museum team at musee@pasteur.fr and follow us on social media (LinkedIn, Instagram).

[1] Source: Second-year Master's dissertation by Laure Swaenepoel (on the server)
[2] Letter from Émile Gallé to Edmond Taigny, auditor at the French Council of State, member of the Board of Governors of the Central Union of Decorative Arts and collector, January 2, 1893, quoted in François Le Tacon, "Émile Gallé et Louis Pasteur," art. cit., p. 27.
[3] Émile Gallé, "Genèse d'une œuvre d’art. Coupe en cristal d'Émile Gallé, offerte à M. Pasteur," Revue encyclopédique, May 15, 1893, no. 59, col. 481-484; text with a preparatory charcoal drawing (Musée d'Orsay) and oil on canvas by Victor Prouvé, Portrait d'Émile Gallé, 1892 (École de Nancy Museum). This text was published previously as: Émile Gallé, "Le vase Pasteur," Journal des débats, May 3, 1893, p. 3.