File:Corning Museum of Glass - 20220412 - 31 - Draped kneeling female figure (Amalric Walter c. 1925) (cropped).jpg

English: Sculpted by artists Amalric Walter and Jean-Bernard Descomps around 1925, this figurine of a semi-nude kneeling female with outstretched arms was realized in translucent camphor yellow glass using the pâte de verre technique, in which glass is ground to a powder, mixed with a binding agent to form a paste, then cast and fired in a mold. It's an early example of Art Deco, a syncretic style indebted to numerous and sometimes contradictory influences, partly an expansion of the earlier Art Nouveau and partly a reaction against it. Art Deco employed stylized forms whose sleek lines and simplified details fully embraced the emerging philosophy of Modernism, yet preserved its predecessor's bright colors, emotional evocativity, and emphasis on quality craftsmanship. Walter and Descomps were based in the French city of Nancy, which had earlier been an epicenter of Art Nouveau, hence this piece's relatively conservative approach to Art Deco; note the curvilinearity of the form. As seen in the "35 Centuries of Glass" gallery during an April 2022 visit to the Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, New York.