About René Lalique

René Jules Lalique (Aÿ, 6 April 1860 — Paris, 1 May 1945) was a French goldsmith and glass artist whose work is considered part of the Art Nouveau and Art Deco movements. Many of his pieces of jewelry were commissioned by, for example, the famous actress Sarah Bernhardt and his most important client, Calouste Gulbenkian, a British/Armenian businessman. A significant number of the jewels René Lalique created for Gulbenkian can be admired at the Gulbenkian Museum in Lisbon (Portugal).

At the age of sixteen, Lalique became an apprentice to the Parisian jeweler Louis Aucoc. He then studied between 1878 and 1880 at the Sydenham Art College in London. After returning to France, he worked for, among others, Aucoc, Cartier, and Boucheron. In 1882, he became a freelance designer for various houses, and four years later he opened his own business. By 1890, Lalique was regarded as one of the most important jewelry designers of the French Art Nouveau. He created innovative designs for the Parisian shop of Samuel Bing: 'La Maison de l'Art Nouveau'.

Flora, fauna, and the female form are the main sources of inspiration for Art Nouveau. Lalique created jewelry with a natural influence, based on peacocks, dragonflies, and snakes, among others. He used materials that were, until then, unusual in haute joaillerie: glass, enamel, leather, horn, and shells. He also often preferred semi-precious stones over precious stones; he chose stones for their color, luster, and shape, not necessarily for their exclusivity. From jewelry, he then developed into glass art. Initially, these were small ‘cire perdue’ objects (lost-wax method). For Coty and other perfume houses, Lalique designed perfume bottles. From the First World War onwards, Lalique produced vases, bowls, lamps, and also very large objects that were commissioned by very wealthy individuals and companies. Click on the photo with the jewel to watch the video about the life of René Lalique.