Video: How a French jeweler unraveled the secrets of Japanese craftsmen: Lucien Gaillard and his bone combs
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
The works of Lucien Gaillard are familiar to everyone - even if his name remains unknown. His graceful hairpins, combs and brooches have become the absolute embodiment of the "curvilinear" direction in modernity. He glorified a short-lived, fluid, changeable beauty - his glory turned out to be just as fleeting …
In the second half of the 19th century, Europeans discovered Japanese art - and this radically changed the vector of development of art and design. The study of the culture of this mysterious country opened up new horizons for artists and gave them new sources of inspiration. The soulfulness and simplicity of Japanese culture, its closeness to nature, its aesthetic multidimensionality formed the basis of various directions of modernity. Jewelers discovered asymmetry, gained the ability to look around and find inspiration literally under their feet, stopped chasing images of eternal youth and turned to the theme of change, the change of seasons and the inevitability of fading. Contemptuously called "Japaneseism", European artists' fascination with Japanese art quickly took on incredible proportions. Lucien Gaillard, who managed to bring the synthesis of cultures to a new level, did not escape this passion.
Gaillard was a third-generation jeweler, and his family was always fond of Japanese art - however, then they were still reputed to be eccentric. However, their merits, skill and ingenuity have always outweighed the oddities.
Lucien was born and raised in Paris, which was already the capital of fashion at that time. And although the whimsical Art Nouveau was not an invention of the French, local masters picked up and developed its exotic motives - and Gaillard became the real genius of French Art Nouveau. He began his career at his grandfather's enterprise, which he inherited in 1892 - and this was the first step towards ceasing to be a descendant of famous jewelers and becoming himself.
Gaillard's first and main teacher was his father, a silversmith who had numerous awards and medals. However, even in the status of the owner of the enterprise, Lucien did not stop studying for a second, attended numerous jewelry courses, communicated with outstanding Parisian craftsmen. But from a young age, Gaillard was fascinated by the secrets of Japanese alloys, patina and varnishes. He believed that it was the Japanese who reached the fantastic level of metal processing, their coloring - and no, he did not strive to surpass them. He wanted to understand them.
Gaillard had the soul of an artist, but the mind of a scientist. He immersed himself in the study of metals and alloys and subsequently published several scientific papers on the technique of patination. At the same time, he ran a workshop producing lamps, vases and other furnishings in the style of Louis XV and Louis XVI. This was not what he wanted - but such things were in demand, which means they brought him income and fame. Prizes and honorary positions were poured on the young jeweler, jewelers all over Europe were interested in his experimental research. And in 1897 Gaillard decided that it was time to make a coup …
He moved to a new four-story building on Ryu Boechi, bought the newest and most advanced equipment for those times. He invited Japanese craftsmen who were ready to reveal the secrets of ancient alloys to him, made acquaintance with Asian engravers, varnishers, jewelers … He made friends with Rene Lalique, already an accomplished jeweler who knew how not only to find inspiration, but also to inspire his colleagues. Finally, he presented his pioneering work at the 1900 World's Fair in Paris.
The audience was amazed. What Gaillard began to produce was so strikingly different from the works of other jewelers that the gaze involuntarily stopped at his window. Patinated silver, strangely shimmering and shimmering, jewelry made with the highest artistic taste, combs, hairpins, tiny vases with natural motives. It took Gaillard years to find special compositions for patination of bone and horn, but a long search was worth it, and the noble ivory in his hands acquired green, purple, pink hues. These jewelry were not particularly durable and required careful handling - but won the heart of everyone who was honored to look at them.
In Gaillard's writings, Japanese influence was very pronounced. He depicted insects, wildflowers, plant seeds - everything that was previously considered unacceptable for luxurious jewelry. In addition, he was one of the first - along with his friend Rene Lalique - to use female images in jewelry, often combined with images of snakes and insects. True, unlike Lalique, he did not win this scandalous fame …
It is also unambiguous that Gaillard borrowed from the Japanese the designs of hair jewelry that made him famous. Richly decorated bone crests have always been imbued with special symbolism in Japanese culture, and Gaillard organically combined Asian functionality with Parisian chic. In what Gaillard did, there was always a special respect for women. Therefore, its combs and hairpins are comfortable, lightweight, pleasant to the touch. And they are also imbued with light and air, they seem alive, trembling, flickering … Almost nothing is known about Gaillard's personal life. Apparently, he has no heirs left. Brother Gaillard was a renowned furniture designer.
In the first decade of the 20th century, Gaillard became interested in glass-blowing and even collaborated with Lalique, but their joint work was not particularly fruitful. After the 1910s, he became less and less active and interested as a scientist and artist, but Gaillard's firm continued to function until 1921. Around this time, he completely stopped doing jewelry and disappeared from the scene. In 1942 it became known that the master no longer exists. However, his jewelry, often not attributed, not named, outlived its creator, settled in private collections, hid in museums and remained a memory of the "beautiful era" when artists saw their goal only to create beauty.
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