René Lalique - Art Deco & Art Nouveau Jewels: When Art Connects with Nature
The artist designed exquisite jewelry pieces, luxury perfume bottles, statues, vases (some of which were illuminated from the inside), ashtrays, lighting fixtures, decorations for car hoods (for famous brands such as Bentley or Bugatti). He was world-famous for his glass creations.
Many of his works were quite expensive and targeted the upper-class society.
René Lalique Attained Glory During Art Nouveau
Rene Lalique (1860-1945) began his career as a jewelry designer and is now recognized as one of the greatest Art Nouveau designers in the world. The craftsman worked for the Boucheron, Vever, and Cartier Houses and also designed jewelry for famous actress Sarah Bernhardt.
His jewelry designs were extremely original and complex, elegant and fantastic. Lalique mainly depicted elements drawn from the natural world and female nudes, rendered with the soft and fluid lines typical of Art Nouveau.
Rene Lalique masterfully reproduced with great verisimilitude wild and domestic animals, insects, fish, and plants, as well as mythical creatures such as nymphs and dragons. The women in his works were represented with sensual hair and translucent curtains, fascinating and mysterious. He was an artist like no other.
The French craftsman had the magical capability of giving his jewels a breath of life. If you take a look at his famous dragonfly brooch, commissioned by Calouste Gulbenkian, you will surely be amazed. The intriguing jewelry piece is basically a synthesis of various elements, the fruit of the artist's imagination. It presents the bust of a woman and the body of an animal that evokes a fish and that stretches claws that cross with the wings. The details of this work of art are extraordinary.
René Lalique and the Woman-Flower
Besides using precious stones and precious metals in his jewelry creations, Lalique liked using diverse materials such as glass, horn, semiprecious stones, amber, ivory, or pearls. The designer was also immersed in the seductive brilliance of the enamel, which he employed extensively.
His pieces are the result of the skillful use of materials and tools. Like a sculptor, the artist draws, chisels, glazes, and models combining bronze and diamonds, semi-precious stones and crystals, gold or silver and ivory.
René Lalique was a Masterful Representative of Art Deco
For his glass objects, Rene Lalique used post-fabrication additions such as painting, glazing, making unique works. He used glass to decorate jewelry, doors, lighting equipment, and other interior decoration details. At one point he started mass-producing glass vessels and decorative pieces.
An order for perfume bottles reportedly led him to develop his distinctive style of poured glass characterized by icy surfaces, elaborate or partially realistic patterns in relief, and, occasionally, color applied or inlaid. Its embossed decoration was produced by blowing into wax molds or by pressing.
His new models presented at the International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts held in Paris in 1925 - the moment when Art Deco came to life - greatly improved his reputation. He became one of the great representatives of the Art Deco artistic movement.
The jewelry pieces and rare objects made personally by René Lalique are precious works of art of breathtaking beauty that transcend time. They are sought after by collectors and jewelry lovers around the world. You won't find many artists as brilliant as René Lalique in the world of jewelry and artistic decoration.
DSF Antique Jewelry has managed to collect some of René Lalique's masterpieces. Visit now our online shop to see the amazing details of his works.
