René Lalique was one of the great design geniuses of the 20th century – a master artist, designer, jeweler, innovator, and glass maker.
Born on April 6, 1860 in rural Ay, France, René spent most of his childhood in Paris, but often retreated to the country to gain inspiration. Throughout his adolescence, Lalique was fascinated by nature, and studied flowers, plants, insects and other natural forms, and was a talented artist – he had even begun to sell paintings of flowers and insects when he was quite young. At the age of sixteen, he started an apprenticeship with the Paris jeweler Louis Aucoc.
Lalique studied at the Ecole des Arts Décoratifs while completing his apprenticeship, and then went on to study draughtsmanship at Sydenham College, outside of London, for two years, beginning in 1878.
Lalique returned to Pairs in 1880 with the intention of become a leading jewelry designer. To this end, he began a detailed study of jewelry techniques. During this time, he also studied sculpture, and made his first designs for fabrics and wallpapers at the Ecole Bernard Palissy, under Justin Lequien.
Most of the early jewelry that Lalique created at this time was based on traditional diamond-set designs. He sold these pieces to major Parisian jewelry houses, including Aucoc, Boucheron, Cartier, and Destape. When Jules Destape retired in 1885, Lalique took over his workshop. This is when Lalique really began to utilize his creative and innovative genius, and began to experiment with creating jewelry of his own design.
Lalique’s approach to jewelry design was highly original in many ways. Perhaps the most important was his determination to create beautiful pieces without relying exclusively on expensive materials. He explored such materials as glass, horn, pearls, semi-precious stones, enamels, and ivory, and was more interested in how he could use there materials, and what they could contribute to the beauty of the piece aesthetically than he was in intrinsic value. This made Lalique’s jewelry unique, and the pieces were true works of art.
Lalique, like many designers of the Art Nouveau period, was influenced by Japonism – the esthetic of Japanese art and design which had gained great popularity in Europe, but the main inspiration for his jewelry was the natural world, especially that of the French countryside that he so loved to explore.
In 1887, Lalique exhibited his jewelry at the Exposition Nationale des Arts Industriels in Paris. While his designs were beginning to be recognized as great works of art, and revolutionary in design and concept, many people were shocked, finding some of his designs disturbing and too realistic.
Lalique continued to experiment even more with enamel and cast and enameled glass elements, paving the way for his later Art Deco career as a great designer and manufacturer of glass vases, objects, and jewelry.
By 1890, Lalique was a well-known artist in the jewelry world in Paris, and in 1892, Lalique secured the patronage of Sarah Bernhardt, the famous actress. This immediately established him internationally as one of the best and most influential jewelry designers. Lalique won first prize at the Salon in Paris in 1897 for hair combs made from ivory and horn, and by 1900, Lalique exhibited not only jewelry, but also decorative arts that were made with bronze, ivory, and glass, at the Exposition Universelle in Paris. The exhibition at the 1900 Exposition Universelle in Paris attracted over 50 million viewers, and established Lalique as both a premier jewelry designer of the Art Nouveau movement, and a prominent figure in the decorative arts…»
In 1905, Lalique opened his first retail store on the prestigious Place Vendôme in Paris, where he received royal patronage from Queen Alexandra. Queen Alexandra had modernized the style of dress for royalty, including the acceptance of daytime jewelry."
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References:
Music Credit :
“Ad Meliora” David Celeste
"A World Beyond" Christoffer Moe Ditlevsen
"A Pilgrim's Tale" Lama House
Video Credit: • René Lalique. Art Glass
To read:
https://fr.lalique.com/en/pages/story...
https://www.artnet.com/artists/ren%C3...
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