Paul Nicolas' career began at the heart of Art Nouveau in Nancy. Gallé employed him in 1893, with the title of “decorator - draughtsman – varnisher”. He was responsible in particular for the floral decoration of the pieces, but was gradually introduced to all the glassmaking trades, including the use of the cane. When he set up his own glassworks in 1919, Nicolas left Gallé with a valuable moral and technical legacy.

Far from settling for repetitions of a style that was no longer popular, the glassmaker, who became independent in 1919, used his technical and artistic knowledge to create high-quality non-figurative pieces, which won him numerous prizes at major international exhibitions in the 1920s and 1930s. With three other glassmakers known to Gallé, Villermaux, Windeck and Mercier, Paul Nicolas created the “Graveurs réunis”association, and signed a contract with the Saint-Louis crystal works for the supply of raw materials, which he decorated in Nancy. After the association was dissolved, he continued to work under his own name and under the name D'Argental, sometimes combined with a Lorraine cross. This early and intense period of activity was characterised by vase designs in the tradition of the École de Nancy, with naturalistic acid-etched decoration. The floral themes dear to Gallé, such as orchids and anemones, and to Art Nouveau, such as irises, datura, ginko and water lilies, are all present. The shapes are simple, and the decoration unfolds in contrasting ways, through the play of contrasting colours in the layers of crystal and the bite of the acid.

After the war and until his death in 1952, he continued to produce a more confidential output. Throughout his life, he produced a large number of watercolours and drawings to accompany his glassware creations.

Numerous graphic documents, largely from the family archives, illustrate Paul Nicolas' talent as a draughtsman and his passion for botany, which brought him to the attention of Gallé, with whom he developed a close friendship. The diplomas awarded at the 1925 and 1937 international exhibitions in which the glassmaker took part attest to the success and renown of Paul Nicolas. Above all, a collection of 88 glassworks and drawings held in public or private collections demonstrate the formal, aesthetic and technical research carried out by the artist throughout his career, first with Gallé, then as founding director of the “Graveurs réunis”, under the name “D'Argental”, with the Saint-Louis-lès-Bitche glassworks, or under the signature “Paul Nicolas”.

Paul Nicolas was the brother of Émile Nicolas (1871-1940), an art critic and founding member of the École de Nancy. Convinced of the social role of the arts, Paul Nicolas was also involved in public life, in particular the Radical Socialist Party, and became the youngest mayor in France, elected in Laxou in 1903. He became a member of the École de Nancy in 1901.