A world of light. Stained glass windows by Francis Chigot and his workshop

1. Francis Chigot (1879-1960) after Léon Jouhaud (1874-1950)
The Limousin Enamellers, 1908
Glass and lead - 143 x 103 cm
Limoges, Musée des Beaux-Arts
Photo : Elsa Viollet

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She is an ideal ambassador to welcome the many visitors to this fascinating exhibition, which is the result of an intelligent and fruitful collaboration between two regional institutions: the Cité du Vitrail de Troyes, whose programme we had already written about (see article) and whose impatience we had been awaiting, given the - relative - disappointment we had felt on discovering its permanent exhibition, and the BAL - Musée des Beaux-Arts de Limoges, which sent L’Émaillerie limousine (ill. 1) to illustrate the beginnings of a great name in twentieth-century stained glass, who is sadly too little known to the general public. Such a rich retrospective in two parts was needed to fully grasp the long career of Francis Chigot, who initially embraced an Art Nouveau aesthetic that was brought to life in glass using the most modern materials, such as chenille glass, the relief of which wonderfully translates the fold of a fabric or the movement of water, far from the sober floral bay windows prized by private clients and the restoration work carried out from 1916 onwards in more than seventeen cathedrals and dozens of churches. A fervent Catholic, Francis Chigot was just as active in religious buildings as he was in civil ones, even if the route does not dare to be blasphemous and quite chastely separates casinos and churches.

2. View of the exhibition "Un monde de lumières. Stained glass windows by Francis Chigot and his workshop" at the Cité du Vitrail in Troyes
Photo: Alexandre Lafore

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3. View of the exhibition "Un monde de lumières. Stained glass windows by Francis Chigot and his workshop" at the Cité du Vitrail in Troyes
Photo: Alexandre Lafore

See the image in its page