Designs for Two Pendants and Two Bracelets with Figurative Motifs
Drawing with designs for two pendants and two bracelets, designed around 1900, part of an album of drawings by various artists for individual pieces of jewelry, containing a variety of designs in the Art Nouveau style of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, as well as some pieces in historic period styles. The first design for a bracelet consists of a garland of stylized flowers and flower buds with pink petals and green pistils, and stylized freen leaves, framed by thin, brown branches decorated with small white dots. The second design for a bracelet, possibly made after the first, consists of a sketch with a semi-abstract flower (?) executed with graphite and grayish-purple gouache in the middle of the bracelet, and quick lines of graphite decorated with small, white dots, executed with gouache, which make the body of the bracelet. The first design for a pendant consists of a brown frame of interlacing branches with small, white brilliants, containing a female figure playing a string instrument with blue ribbon decorations, colored with shades of greenish-yellow, possibly suggesting a golden surface. The second design for a pendant consists of a vertical bundle with brown, interlacing branches with small, white dots and small, green, stylized leaves and white, stylized flowers, and a female figure in the center, holding a string instrument decorated with blue ribbons over her shoulder; she is colored with a soft shade of pink, and her hair with pastel yellow. These designs reveal the aesthetic of late Art Nouveau jewelry style, designed, among others, by Rene Lalique, which drew inspiration from antiquity and japonism, abandoning the exclusive use traditional precious stones in the manufacture of jewels, and using, instead, a combination of gold, gemstones, semi-precious stones, mother-of-pearl, ivory and horn, enamel, and glass, to create colorful, powerful, and sinuous designs, often presenting animal and other figurative motifs.
Artwork Details
- Title: Designs for Two Pendants and Two Bracelets with Figurative Motifs
- Artist: Anonymous, French, 19th century
- Date: ca. 1900
- Medium: Graphite, pen and black ink, watercolor, and gouache on buff paper
- Dimensions: Sheet: 9 13/16 × 12 13/16 in. (24.9 × 32.6 cm)
Album: 14 3/16 in. × 11 in. × 9/16 in. (36 × 28 × 1.5 cm) - Classifications: Albums, Drawings, Ornament & Architecture
- Credit Line: The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1953
- Object Number: 53.670.27
- Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints
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