René Jules Lalique

Naturalism, Symbolism, Art Nouveau and Art Deco

René Jules Lalique (1860-1945) was a renowned French jewelry and glass designer from the 19-20th century. It was him who started making perfume bottles in different forms and shapes, commissioned by François Coty.

It is said that Lalique nature-themed style was rooted in his summer trips back to his hometown Ay in France with his parents when he was little. Animals and plants became the source of his inspiration. 

He worked as a professional designer for Jules Destape, as well as freelanced for Cartier and Boucheron. By 1885 he opened his own business, and also created for Samuel Bing's Maison de I'Art Nouveau.

According to Collector's Weekly, Art Nouveau jewelry was popular from the late 1890s until the mid-1910s. It is characterized by soft, curved shapes and lines, and themed on nature with motifs such as flowers, birds, and animals. The female body was a popular theme and it was often found on cameos.

Glass and stones such as agate, garnet, and opal, and jewelry made of enamel were common. Long pearls necklaces were desirable, too. However, Art Nouveau jewelry pieces were often cheaply imitated. (So Lalique turned from jewelry to glass design.)

Art Deco became popular between the mid-1920s and '30s in France, it is characterized by geometric lines, sharp angles, and bright colors. When women obtained higher social status and importance after WWI, jewelry became highly desirable during the Art Deco period. Diamonds also became popular again in that period.

Art Deco pieces were often made of bakelite, celluloid, enamel or amber.

Many described Lalique's works as naturalistic, which I may have to disagree. His works seem quite stylised with the flowers and leaves, and sometimes even idealised with elongated female figures. It is also said that his works are full of symbolism. I am indeed quite curious about the serpents on his works.

Here is the description from the Calouste Gulbenkian museum -

The pectoral is made up of nine serpents entwined to form a knot from which the bodies of the other eight fall in a cascade, the ninth rising in the centre, at the top of the jewel. The reptiles, in the attack position, have their mouths open from which strings of pearls were hung as was apparently the case with a similar pectoral (the whereabouts of which are unknown), which was highlighted at the Paris Universal Exhibition in 1900 and reproduced in a publication of the period.

Interestingly, he also made works of cicadas and dragonflies.