DescriptionRené-Jules Lalique was born in the Marne region of France. As a young student he showed great artistic promise and his mother guided him toward jewelry making. From 1876 to 1878 he apprenticed with Louis Aucoc, a noted Parisian jeweler. By the 1890s he had opened his own workshop in Paris and become one of the most admired jewelers of the day.

Lalique avoided using precious stones and the conservatively classical settings favored by other leading jewelers of the time. Rather, he combined semiprecious stones with such materials as enamel, horn, ivory, coral, rock crystal, and irregularly shaped Baroque pearls in settings of organic inspiration, frequently accentuated by asymmetrical curves or elaborate flourishes.

He designed this powerfully evocative necklace for his second wife, Augustine-Alice Ledru, around the turn of the century. The repeats of the main motif — an attenuated female nude whose highly stylized curling hair swirls around her head and whose arms sensuously curve down to become a border enclosing enamel-and-gold swans and an oval cabochon amethyst — are separated by pendants set with fire opals mounted in swirling gold tendrils.

Selected Exhibition HistoryCanada: The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, June 8 - October 15, 1995. Lost Paradise: Symbolist Europe. Pg. 344, Fig.418, Cat.239 illus. in color.

Baltimore, Maryland: Walters Art Gallery, November 19, 1985 - January 5,1986. Richmond, Virginia: The Virginia Museum, January 16 - March 16, 1986. Fort Worth, Texas: Kimbell Art Museum, March 29 - June 8, 1986. Los Angeles, California: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, June 26 - August 18, 1986. San Francisco, California: the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, August 28, 1986 - October 19, 1986. Art Nouveau Jewelry by Rene Lalique

Luxembourg: Musée Luxembourg, March 7-July 29, 2007. René Lalique: Exceptional Jewellery 1890-1912 Catalogue: Yvonne Brunhammer, ed.

Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, October 19, 2008 - January 18, 2009; San Francisco, California: Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, February 7 - May 31, 2009. Artistic Luxury: Fabergé Tiffany Lalique, cat. no. 164, pg. 147.

Selected BibliographyYvonne Brunhammer, ed. René Lalique: Exceptional Jewellery 1890-1912. Milan: Skira Editore S.p.A., 2007, cat. no. 68, ill. in color p. 79 (detail), 96; discussed p. 134