Art

The art world experienced a much needed breath of fresh air in the period known as Art Nouveau. This style of art was prevalent from about 1890 through 1910. Characteristics of this new style of art were free flowing lines, lush enameling, the celebration of the curves and lines of the human form and natural beauty including flowers and insects and animals. There was a certain freedom in this elegant art form. Prior to what we now refer to as Art Nouveau, there was a certain dreary strictness in art due to the restraints of the Victorian period. Heavily ornamented diamonds and restrictive designs were standards in the Victorian era. A few pioneers sought to establish a new way of looking at art and design. At the time Art Nouveau was emerging, the Industrial Revolutions machines were creating a din that threatened to annihilate cottage industries. But, although machines could mass produce, they couldnt replace the hands of the most sought-after artisans. The newly rich and the older moneyed class alike still sought after finery that could only be created by a master, not a machine.

The Art Nouveau awakening imposed very few rules on its creators. Artisans were free to create with graceful lines and curves and take their imaginations into flights of fancy. Though the Art Nouveau movement covered all areas of art from sculpture to painting to glasswork to architecture and furniture, we will take a walk here through Art Nouveau jewelry.

Although many periods in jewelry history have influenced the styles that came after them, few have had more dramatic and long-lasting influence than Art Nouveau jewelry. Its genius was in its elaborate simplicitythe taking of an everyday form such as a dragonfly or lizard and turning it into a masterpiece. Its effects are still felt today in the popularity and duplication of pieces that first arrived on the scene at the turn of the century.

The Art Nouveau artist believed that every art was major art, for it implied a sense of responsibility and called upon the greatest creative talent a craftsman possessed. (Barilli, p70) Among these, in the jewelry niche, were Ren Lalique, Peter Carl Faberg, Georges Fouquet, Paul and Henri Vever, Louis Comfort Tiffany and Henri Van de Velde. Their names have become synonymous with the Art Nouveau movement in jewelry.

LALIQUES INFLUENCE
Lalique, was one of the most prominent and gifted artisans whose work still inspires today. He was a French goldsmith influenced in part by the flowing and uncomplicated designs found in Japanese artwork. Lalique worked not only in metals but also in glass. His designs fetch enormous prices at auction today and are installed in some of the most highly-respected museums around the globe.

Lalique was a visionary and perhaps single-handedly raised the occupation of jeweler to master artisan status. He set out to please an elite class of patrons whose tastes could only be satisfied with the type of finery royalty would aspire to. Among his designs were dreamy, tall, willowy women who often sprang butterfly wings, dragonflies and flowers like lilies, ginkgo leaves, and irises. Nature and its beauty were recurring themes in his work.

Casting and carving gold were two of Laliques talents, but he was also a master of enameling. This became the hallmark of Art Nouveau jewelry. The enameling was done by hand and so reflected the skill level of the artisan. The effect was that each enameled piece looked like a three-dimensional painting. The type of enameling used most often was known as Plique ajour. Plique ajour is defined as enameling that is transparent with no backing. The effect most often achieved by Plique ajour enameling is likened to that of stained glass. (httpwww.artnouveaujewelry.net, 2010). These enameled birds seem to be mid-flight holding their gold and diamond branch. A true departure from the staid and serious pieces of times before.

Another superb example of Laliques use of nature, enameling, and graceful forms is found in his piece shown below, Pendentif Coqs.(Museum of Decorative Arts, 2010)  Lalique crafted this piece between 1901 and 1902 and it is done in gold, sapphire and diamond with rich blue enameling. He uses animals, here two cocks facing each other head on and a center cabochon of star sapphire encrusted with diamonds. He gracefully carves two feathers  and enamels them by hand. This was a huge departure from the Victorians in that it has a lightness of form and a playfullness they would never have included.

Many think of  Lalique as the inventor of modern jewelry. His creations helped usher in a movement that jewelry designers today are still trying to emulate. The Museum of Decorative Arts houses one of the largest collections of Lalique jewelry.

In stepping away from the heavy jewelry that was all the rage once diamond mines were opened in South Africa, Lalique began a new trend. Lalique used not only colored precious stones but also the humbler semiprecious ones and even carved glass, either colored or iridescent and opaque. (Battersby, p 22) What before was seen as the essential displays of ostentatious wealthdiamonds, rubies and emeraldswere now being replaced by semiprecious stones and glass. Could glass rival a diamond In Laliques hands it could. Prior to the Art Nouveau period, stones were chosen for their importance and purity. Now, under Laliques influence, materials were not used merely for their intrinsic value but for their chromatic possibilities. (Gregorietti, p286). Did it catch the light in a certain way Then Lalique would use it. Shocking

This Art Nouveau profile brooch with Plique a jour enamel, peridot, hessanite and gold is a fine
example of the work of Lalique. He used stones that the traditional Victorian design houses prior would not have considered using and he paints his enamel on with a delicate hand that results in a masterpiece of portrait quality.

CONTEMPORARIES OF LALIQUE
Although Lalique was a genius and frontrunner in the Art Nouveau jewelry design movement, he was in good company. Other fine designers emerged and contributed greatly to the ethereal pieces that survive today. This piece below, Sylvia, by Paul and Henri Vever is one of the most exquisite examples of the Nouveau celebration of the human form. It would have been an upper-class lady of privilege who would have worn this privately commissioned piece.

Finery has also survived from this period in the works of Faberg, who rose to fame for not only his jewelry designs but his royal decorated eggs as well. Men like Georges Fouquet, Louis Comfort Tiffany and Henri Van de Velde also made important contributions the movement that celebrated art for arts sakeart that was not to be categorized into high art or crafts. It is ironic that although the Art Nouveau movement celebrated art that was accessible to everyone with few restrictions and all inclusive, only the very wealthy would have been able to afford it at the time.

THE DEMISE OF AN ERA
Abruptly with the inception of World War I the Art Nouveau movement fell out of favor. It gave way to what would be called the Modernist style. Materials and metals became scarce and lifestyles changed. And, as in every age, new artists enter the scene with different ideas. Now, the flowery beauty of the woman would give rise to Cubism and Artists like Picasso and Matisse would have a very different view of the human form. Although the Art Nouveau period only enjoyed a few decades of fame, its influences are still present to this day. Art Nouveau will always be with us.