We know the great classics, including the Ecole de Nancy museum, in the spa district, or the Villa Majorelle. But there are relatively unknown nuggets. This is the case of the Bergeret house in Nancy, a masterful masterpiece, today a workplace of the presidency of the University of Lorraine. We quickly perceive the architect’s fully achieved objective: Lucien Weissenburger wanted to create a complete work in which he associated most of the great names of the Ecole de Nancy. Strolling through the Bergeret house, you come across Majorelle and its ironwork, the joinery by Eugène Vallin, the stained glass windows by Jacques Gruber and Joseph Janin, as well as a huge canvas by Victor Prouvé. We are dealing here with a concentration of geniuses from Nancy. This mansion was commissioned by Albert Bergeret, member of the steering committee of the Alliance des artistes de l’Ecole de Nancy. Albert was an art printer and made his fortune notably with the illustrated postcard from the end of the 19th century. It is becoming one of the biggest French references in this field and its printing works employ up to 400 employees printing 300,000 cards a day. His business began to take a nosedive after the First World War; In fact, it did not really anticipate the rotogravure revolution and will gradually lose markets. He leaves his villa to posterity and Art Nouveau fans. And to collectors of postcards, a few thousand exceptional testimonials about our region.
