Lot 584 : DESC-A RARE ART NOUVEAU GEM-SET, ENAMEL AND 18K GOLD "APPARITIONS"
Auction Location: Switzerland - 1996
Please sign in or subscribe to Artfact Professional or Artfact Fine Art to see auction date and house information.
Please sign in or subscribe to Artfact Professional or Artfact Fine Art to view enlarged images.
Description:
BROOCH, BY THE MAISONVEVER AND EUGENE GRASSET Depicting a carved ivory woman's face surrounded by golden enamel hair partially concealing a matt gold face with green enamel eye and wavy bluish black enamel hair, swimming in a pool of greenish blue enamel arabesques with cabochon brownish yellow topaz boule detail to the golden pearl pendant detail, circa 1900, with French assay mark Signed by Vever, Paris, designed by Eugene Grasset Cf. Bayerischen, Nationalmuseum, "Pariser Schmuck", Hirmer Verlag, Munich, 1989, page 202, plate, 123 Vivien Becker, "Art Nouveau Jewellery", E.P. Dutton, New York, 1985, page 56, plate 62 Musee d'Orsay, "Catalogue Sommaire Illustre des Arts Decoratifs", Editions de la Reunion des Musees Nationaux, Paris, 1988, page 117 Kenneth Snowman. "The Master Jewellers", Thames & Hudson, London, 1990, page 262 Henri Vever, "La Bijouterie Francaise au XIXe Siecle: Volume III", H. Floury, Paris, 1908, page 669 This unusual brooch was among twenty jewels designed by Swiss-born architect and decorative artist Eugene Grasset and executed by the Maison Vever for the 1900 Paris World Exhibition. In the spirit of such collaborations as Alphonse Mucha and the Fouquetes, these jewels represented the fusion of the artistic and jewellery spheres to create wearable works of art. The critics at the time were struck by the originality of the jewels and considered the stands of Vever and Lalique to be the most impressive and innovative. This was the opportunity that was to propel the maison of Vever to the forefront of the world of bijouterie, equalled only by Rene Lalique. As well as being an extremely talented house, one of its members, Henri Vever, produced the definitive work on 19th Century jewellery, "La Bijouterie Francaise au XIXe siecle." Eugene Grasset's contribution to Art Nouveau jewellery, and perhaps even the enture Art Nouven movement, has been at times underestimated. He began his career in 1871 in Paris working as a textile designer. By the next decade, he had expanded his activities to ceramics, glass and graphic design. He created posters and was well-known for his Orientalist-inspired illustrations of "Les Quatre Fils d'Aymon" (1883). Additionally, he produced designs for stained glass which were then executed by Tiffany. His most major contribution to Art Nouveau Jewellery was his proponence of Japanese Art. Along with the English "Arts and Crafts" designer William Morris, he was one of the main champions of plant-inspired themes deriving inspiration from Japanese motifs. The arabesque had become de rigeur. The sinewy waves surrounding the two faces in the present brooch are indicative of this. In 1896, he published a book, "La Plante et ses applications ornementales", the popularity of which led to a second edition in 1900. It is also important to note at this point that Henri Vever was a fanatial collector of Japanese art. This explains a certain affinity the two probably had for the visual vocabulary used by Japanese artists. Their mutual aesthetic understanding led to a highly successful collaboration. Grasset's incorporation of rather flattish, pure fields of colour, as can be seen in the two faces of the brooch, derived from his knowledge of Japanese wood prints. At an early stage, simultaneously with the famed artistic movement, the Nabis, he adopted the sparse, yet highly decorative aesthetic of such Japanese print-makers as Hiroshige, Hokusai and Utamuro which were to be seized shortly thereafter by such great artistic movements as the Impressionist and the Fauves. In speaking of the Nabis, one cannot help but notice the similarity in the pattern created by the bubbles in the arabesque-like waves of the brooch and those which are omnipresent in the works of Nabi artists such as Pierre Bonnard and Educard Vuillard. These are reminiscent of those repeating motifs seen in the kimonos and falling snowflakes of the Japanese prints. The subject matter of the brooch is somewhat mysterious. The name "Apparitions" calls to mind the enigmatic nature of the Symbolist Movement which was in full swing at the time of its creation. By definition, Symbolism is the "use of symbols and indirect suggestion to express ideas, emotions, etc". Perhaps the two somewhat ethereal, otherworldly figures or "apparitions" represented Grasset's fascination with the supernatural, an undercurrent that affected many artists of the Art Nouveau period. The woman's head also calls to mind visions of Ophelia floating in the river by the Pre-Raphaelites. Even if one cannot decipher the exact meaning of the brooch, one thing is certain. This wonderfully mystical object is worthy of a museum as it is not only aesthetically pleasing, but embodies a phase in the history of Art and the Decorative Arts.
Other Lots from Morris:
View all Auction Results for Morris
