Chơn Lalique. Lalique was born in 1860 in Ay on the river Marne. He was apprenticed at 16 to Parisian jeweler Louis Aucoc, from whom he learned the traditional jewelry-making tech- niques. After two years with Aucoc, he went to England and studied at Sydenham College. In 1880, he returned to Paris and for the next five years worked as a designer of jewelry, fans, fabric, and wallpaper. He established his own business in 1885, and was subsequently commissioned by Sarah Bernhardt to make some jewels for the stage.In 1895, Siegfried Bing converted his Japanese import shop into a store that featured art, textiles, jewelry, glass, and furniture in the new style. He named it La Maison de 1Art Nouveau, thus giving the movement its name and serving to bring prominent artists of the time into the public eye. Among these were Lautrec, Bonnard, Mucha, Tiffany, Mackintosh, Beardsley, and Lalique. Also at this time, Lalique submitted jewels to a compe- tition at the Salon de la Societe des Artistes Fran~ais. One of these, a cloalzclasp, was "arguably the first Art Nouveau jewel to use a naked female" (Becker, 1985). Critics raved about his work, espe- cially praising his unusual style and technique, which promised to rejuvenate the art of jewelry making. Lalique reached the pinnacle of his success at the 1900 Paris Exhibition. Lalique's pavilion, de- signed entirely by himself, had soft gray carpets and gray gauze drapes against which hung black velvet bats. The front was framed with a wrought iron grille depicting partially clothed winged wo- men. The pavilion served as a perfect showcase for his jewels, which were displayed in cases on white watered silk and ground glass. His exhibit caused an immediate sensation, and for it Lalique won a grand prize and the rosette of the Legion of Honor. After that, Lalique was inundated with interna- tional commissions. His largest came from the Armenian banker, Calouste Gulbenlzian, for whom Lalique produced a series of 145 pieces from 1895 to 1912. These jewels, perhaps Lalique's most fantastic and unusual pieces, can be seen today at the Gulbenlzian Museum in Portugal. Unfor- tunately, the price of fame for Lalique was to see his work endlessly copied and imitated. This plagiarism and cheap commercialization disillu- sioned Lalique, and once the commission to Gulbenlzian was completed, he ceased making jewelry and turned all of his talent to glassmaking (Becker, 1985 1. Lalique's pieces overall are dramatic and theat- rical, with motifs drawn from nature that are full of an underlying sexual tension. His women are beautiful, sensual, flowing nudes that are often fantasy creatures with wings or tails, part insect or fish. Lalique was innovative in his use of materials and is credited with being the first to use the material horn in his jewels. Over the years; he produced many brooches, combs, pendants and tiaras of horn, which he carved, stained, enameled, and polished, often studding the pieces with gold and gemstones (figure 9). Much of his work incor- porates glass, either in one of the enameling techniques that were being experimented with at that time, or as pate-de-verre.
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