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Luscious Lalique
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18633 |
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Section : |
THE ARTS
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| Issue
Date : |
8 / 1991 |
1,499 Words |
| Author
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Judith Bell
Judith Bell is an art historian and novelist based in
Arlington, Virginia. |
"Lalique's glass has the ethereal brilliance of Arctic ice. Its texture is hardly visible, and one can scarcely believe that it was once a thick, opaque substance ...; it would seem rather to consist of immaterial ether, the frozen breath of the Polar night," wrote Guillaume Janneau in Modern Glass in 1931 about the internationally renowned decorative glass-maker, Rene Lalique. Sixty years later his poetic tribute still stands, justifiably, on the overwhelming creative output of Rene Lalique, leading exponent of Art Nouveau and Art Deco. He was the pioneer of Le Style Lalique and one of the most progressive designers of the last hundred years.
Known primarily as a manufacturer of jewelry and glass, Lalique's insatiable curiosity led him to work with a multitude of materials on a multitude of projects, looking for combinations that would result in what one critic called "a perfect adaption of the design to the subject." He had a practical sense, rarely coupled with creativity, that allowed him to capitalize on the times. For the newly created automobile, he designed hood ornaments illuminated with colored light that intensified as the car gained speed. He made delicate ashtrays with charming animal figurines to appeal to all the smokers who emerged throughout Europe after World War I. His architectural-scale glass decorated the interior walls of the elegant railcars and luxury ocean liners of the period.
From 1890, when he first began to experiment with glass in jewelry design, until 1940, when the outbreak of World War II halted production at his Wingen-sur-Moder factory, Lalique was the exclusive company designer. He involved himself in all production stages: from sketches and working drawings to three-dimensional models in clay and plaster of Paris, which were used to make steel molds. Only in the late thirties, with the advent of a new generation of industrial designers who emphasized the unity of form and function, did Lalique's earlier ornamental pieces fall out of favor.
Neo-Baroque Jeweler
Lalique began his career as a jewelry designer. He was apprenticed in 1876 at the age of sixteen to Louis Aucoc, a neo-baroque-style jeweler who made use of the wealth of diamonds and other gemstones flooding into Europe from recently opened African mines. Two years later, he went to Sydenham, England, to the school of art located in the reerected Crystal Palace. Lalique was most likely drawn to the English Arts and Crafts Movement founded by William Morris. Believing that the decorative arts could be invigorated by the careful
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