Piece jewelry based on the sketches of the legendary Alphonse Mucha: Snake for Sarah Bernhardt and other exclusive

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Dragonflies and climbing plants, butterflies and beautiful long-haired girls - the adornments of the Fouquet jewelry house at first glance seem very familiar to anyone who is at least a little familiar with the history of art. There is no mistake in this - the most outstanding decorations for this enterprise were created by the famous artist Alphonse Mucha. But the history of the Fouquet house is much wider than this legendary collaboration …

The founder of the jewelry house, which is now known primarily for collaboration with outstanding artists of modernism, was Georges Fouquet's father, Alphonse. He went a long way from an apprentice in the Marais quarter to the founder of his own business. He became famous after winning a competition to create a wedding gift for the heir to the Egyptian throne, and five years later he opened a jewelry store in the Venetian style. Alphonse Fouquet was one of the first to experience the beauty of the emerging Art Nouveau style, but death prevented the jeweler from enjoying the heyday of Art Nouveau. In 1895, his son Georges inherited the company.

Georges was a creative person, but at the same time he had a rare business acumen and to some extent unprincipled. Fouquet's jewelry house adopted other people's ideas and adapted them to the tastes of the public - for example, without a twinge of conscience, he adopted the images of the works of Rene Lalique. Georges Fouquet's most successful design was the Rose of the Hand bracelet, which was connected to a ring by a thin, elegant chain - from time to time to this day, this bracelet is at the height of fashion.

But first of all, Georges is known for the most successful collaboration in the history of jewelry design - the invitation of the artist Alphonse Mucha to develop jewelry sketches. Fouquet saw that Art Nouveau was gaining popularity, but he realized that the competition was already high enough. At one of the exhibitions, he drew attention to the luxurious jewelry that the artist presented to the heroines of his paintings and posters.

Mucha carefully researched the natural world to find fresh images.

Along with the refined maidens entangled in their own braids - the most replicated image of Fly's creativity - water lilies and sweet peas appear in brooches and bracelets.

Iris - the flower of Art Nouveau - appears just as often. Insect wings and plant shoots are intertwined and stylized to such an extent that it is difficult to guess the real image. The European public is fascinated by the art of the East, and Mucha does not neglect the use of the lotus shape, but interprets it in his own manner.

Sometimes the decoration includes sophisticated fantastic landscapes, made in complex, decadent shades.

Opals and onyxes come to replace precious stones in Fouquet's jewelry of the period of cooperation with the Fly, enamel is boldly turned on, pearls of irregular shape are experiencing a new period of popularity - after all, everything is wrong, irrational, distorted in fashion. Mother of pearl is one of the favorite materials of Art Nouveau jewelers.

The joint work of the genius artist and the talented merchant resulted in a multitude of jewelry included in the annals of the history of arts and crafts.

It was Fouquet and Mucha who invented the gold snake bracelet, which literally became a symbol of Art Nouveau jewelry. The decoration was created for the legendary actress Sarah Bernhardt for the premiere of her play Medea. Georges Fouquet presented jewelry designed by Mucha at the World Exhibition in Paris, where he won a gold medal.

The collaboration between Mucha and Fouquet was not limited to the creation of jewelry. In 1900, at the dawn of the 20th century, Fouquet invited the artist to design the exterior and interior of his store - from signs to door handles, from furniture to lamps. Mucha conceived the store as a complete work of art, as if continuing the flowing lines and exquisite forms of the jewelry he created. He strove to create a special world in which beauty would play the main role. The artist, like all interior designers of the Art Nouveau era, turned his gaze to natural motives. Glittering multicolored stained-glass windows create a surreal impression, and graceful peacocks emphasize the luxury of the interior. The sign is made in a specially designed "modern" font.

The fate of this interior was not easy. In the year the boutique opened, its furnishings made a splash, and the interior existed unchanged until 1923. Then, after the termination of cooperation with Mucha and due to a change in the dominant style of the jewelry house, more modern furniture came to the place of Mucha's refined and luxurious solutions - strict forms, clear lines … At the beginning of World War II, the Fouquet family handed over the surviving fragments of the interior to the Carnavale Museum for safekeeping. created by Mucha. At the end of the 80s, the Carnavale Museum completed its most difficult project - the reconstruction of the interior of the Fouquet boutique.

In 1923, the union between Mucha and Fouquet was dissolved. The reason for this was falling incomes, the financial crisis and Fouquet's inability to pay more for the expensive services of the famous artist. The tastes of the public also changed, the Art Deco style was gaining strength - more aggressive, functional, dangerous. Georges' son, Jean, received a classical education and dreamed of becoming a writer, but in the early 1920s he took up work in his father's jewelry house. He was a great admirer of modern art, abstract art and other modernist movements, which allowed him to create recognizable, stylish and simple jewelry in a geometrized manner. Jean's jewelry is considered to be an outstanding piece of Art Deco. Fouquet Jewelry House has become that rare enterprise that has managed to quickly adapt to the emergence of two revolutionary decorative styles - Art Nouveau and Art Deco. Jean, following the example of his father, invited the jeweler Louis Fertey and the poster artist Adolphe Muron to cooperate. Despite the social, economic and political turmoil, for several decades after the split with Mucha, Fouquet's house continued to create jewelry that today attracts the attention of collectors around the world.