At the age of sixteen he went to work for the family business as an assistant to his father, making floral designs and emblems for both faience and glass.

[3] At the age of sixteen he finished the Lycée in Nancy and went to Weimar in Germany from 1862–1866 to continue his studies in philosophy, botany, sculpture and drawing.

During this time he became acquainted with the painter, sculptor and engraver Victor Prouvé, an artist of the romantic "troubadour" style, who became his future collaborator in the Nancy School.

After his demobilization Gallé went to London, where he represented his father at an exhibition of the arts of France, then to Paris, where he remained for several months, visiting the Louvre and Cluny Museum, studying examples of ancient Egyptian art, Roman glassware and ceramics, and especially early Islamic enamelled glass, a technique which influenced his own later work.

In 1873 he took up residence in La Garenne ("the rabbit warren"), the three-story neoclassical house built by his father and surrounded by gardens.

His work at the Exposition was rewarded with two Grand Prizes, a gold medal, and the title of a commander in the Legion of Honor.

Created to encourage the arts in Nancy, the glassmaker Antonin Daum, furniture maker Louis Majorelle and Eugene Vallin as Vice Presidents.

On one vase, called Fiori Oscuri, he engraved the words of Robert de Montesquiou: "I love the hour when everything changes its form, when light and dark struggle together.

He was a founder, along with Victor Prouvé, of the Université populaire de Nancy, offering university-level classes to workers.

He was treasurer of the Nancy branch of the Human Rights League of France and in 1898, at great risk for his business, one of the first to become actively involved in the defense of Alfred Dreyfus.

Gallé proposed dusting the surface of the hot glass, which would give the appearance of fabric, or thick cobweb, or other textures.

He proposed to make further decoration the surface with engraving, sand blasting, and wheel carving, and to embed fragments of hot glass into this patina or outer layer.

As early as 1878 he colored glass with a small quantity of cobalt oxide to make a delicate sapphire tone which he called "Clair de lune", or "moonlight".

He continued to incorporate experimental techniques into his work, such as metallic foils and air bubbles, and also revitalized the glass industry by establishing a workshop to mass-produce his, and other artists', designs.

He was intrigued by the extraordinary variety of colors and reflective qualities of the woods being imported into Europe from colonies around the world.

Within a year, he had created his own furniture workshop, employing experienced carpenters, sculptors, varnishers and experts in marquetry, as well as craftsmen in bronze and iron to make the knobs, locks, and other hardware.

Unlike some designers of the Arts and Crafts movement, he was willing to use machine tools to speed up the manufacture, if it did not diminish the quality of the final product.

He argued that true beauty could never be found "in the acceptance of the falseness and mediocrity of prettiness without character or in opulence without spirit."

The faience, or glazed earthenware of Gallé, rarely achieved the same level of technical quality and fame as his glassware.

His ceramics and glazed earthenware of Gallé oftenl, looked like real earth, employing earthy brown colors, with overlays of leaves and insects [17]