Recalling Art Nouveau: ‘It’s About Design’

Stunning ladies with lengthy, flowing tresses; thickets of thistle and winding wisteria; elegant birds poised to take to the air — all of them sound so poetic. However kind them into brooches, pendants and rings, and you’ve got the beginnings of an iconic type. Or so it was on the 1900 Exposition Universelle in Paris, when René Lalique displayed tiaras adorned with nudes and necklaces twined with serpents, all enhanced by colourful, iridescent enamels and small gems. “It didn’t seem like something that got here earlier than it, or for that matter something that got here after it,” Elyse Zorn Karlin, co-director of the Affiliation for the Research of Jewellery & Associated Arts, wrote in an electronic mail. “It was sensual, unique and arresting.” A century later, Lalique is acclaimed by many because the forefather of contemporary jewellery due to the French designer’s daring break from the normal reliance on giant gems. And the work of some contemporaries, together with Georges Fouquet and Philippe Wolfers, additionally continues to be celebrated. In November at a Christie’s public sale in Geneva, an enamel, diamond and pearl necklace by Lalique offered for $978,400, seven occasions its estimated worth, a document for Art Nouveau jewellery and Lalique creations. “We might worth one thing at 120,000 euros, however while you have a look at the fabric it’s manufactured from, it’s actually melted glass and a little bit of gold with a worth of about €20,000,” stated Marie-Cécile Cisamolo, a Christie’s jewellery specialist. “It’s not such as you say, ‘It is a diamond, I get it.’ It’s about design.” However that, in keeping with Patricia De Wit, co-owner of Epoque High-quality Jewels in Brussels, is precisely the purpose. “It’s all about aesthetics, no?” she stated. “You’re feeling you’ll like to put on it. It’s so female, and strengthens the fantastic thing about a lady, while you put on one thing like this. It’s common. They prefer it in Japan, they like in China, they prefer it in New York — it’s in every single place. It’s a pleasure for the attention.” René Lalique PictureRené Lalique, a 1906 portrait.Credit scoreHeritage Photographs/Getty Photographs René Lalique and his contemporaries approached every bit as if it had been a small paintings. Advanced, sculptural settings with enamel particulars had been extra spectacular and vital than the stones — often semiprecious opal, amethyst or tourmaline — that they used. Created between 1899 and 1901, the Lalique necklace, above, depicts 4 gold-and-enamel wasps with diamond wings on a hawthorn department of enamel and opalescent glass. There are leaves of plique-à-jour enamel, together with two on the 20-inch chain, and a baroque pearl on the backside. (The plique-à-jour method, French for “letting in daylight,” makes use of no backing on parts so gentle can shine by way of.) Philippe Wolfers The plique-à-jour method was used for the inexperienced leaves of the Glycine collar by Philippe Wolfers, maybe a very powerful piece by the Belgian jeweler. It has wisteria blossoms of opal and watermelon tourmalines and curved branches set with tiny rubies. Georges Fouquet and Alphonse Mucha This gold, enamel and mother-of-pearl pendant is an instance of the jewellery designed by the Czech painter Alphonse Mucha and made by the French jeweler Georges Fouquet throughout their partnership, from 1899 to 1901. It’s a part of the jewellery assortment on the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Mucha, whose work commonly featured female figures in lush settings, just like the picture above, usually partnered with Fouquet on designs. Art Nouveau As we speak Celebrities usually choose Art Nouveau-style items, like this 19th-century laurel leaf headband in diamonds that Salma Hayek wore to the 2017 Oscars. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/10/fashion/jewelry-art-nouveau-rene-lalique.html?partner=rss&emc=rss