| | |
| | | Lalique, René Jules |
|
| (*) 1860, Ay, Marne |
|
(x)1945, Paris |
|
French jeweller, glassmaker and designer. He studied at the Ecole Nationale des Art Décoratifs in Paris. After his father’s death (1876) he was apprenticed to the Parisian jeweller Louis Aucoc. Later he went to London to study at Sydenham College, which specialized in the graphic arts. On his return to Paris in 1880, he found employment as a jewellery designer creating models for such firms as Cartier and Boucheron. His compositions began to acquire a reputation and in 1885 he took over the workshop of Jules d’Estape in the Rue du 4 Septembre, Paris. He rejected the current trend for diamonds in grand settings and instead used such gemstones as bloodstones, tourmalines, cornelians and chrysoberyls together with plique à jour enamelling and inexpensive metals for his creations. His jewellery, which was in the Art Nouveau style, included hair-combs, collars, brooches, necklaces and buckles and he also branched out into metalwork, producing gold boxes, inkwells and daggers. His international reputation was established at the Exposition Universelle in 1887 in Paris and by securing such patrons as the actress Sarah Bernhardt.
In 1898 Lalique established a glass workshop in Clairfontaine where started to produce glassware in the cire perdue process. In 1907 he was commissioned by François Coty to design some perfume bottles; Lalique also designed and created perfume bottles for other perfumers including Houbigant, Guerlain and Worth. In 1910 he bought a glassworks in Combs-la-Ville and in 1919 another in Wingen-sur-Moder, Alsace. At the later he employed the press-moulding technique for mass-produced items including light fittings, vases, table lamps, clockcases, bowls, ashtrays, ceiling fittings, furniture and car mascots. Other work in glass included panels of lights and tableware for the liner SS Normandie, or the Orient Express. Also interior design, including the window panel for Coty’s shop in New York and chandeliers for various public buildings in Paris. His fountain for the Paris exhibition in 1925 as well as interiors for some French churches in the 1930s is just a few of all the works worth mentioning. After his death his son Marc continued the firm, which still exists today. |
|
|
|
