FOUQUET, Georges

In 1895, Georges Fouquet took over from his father Alphonse Fouquet the jewellery company, which he had founded in 1860. Inspired by collaborators full of new ideas such as Alphonse Mucha and Charles Desrosiers, Fouquet completely transformed the art of jewellery.

He commissioned Mucha to make several exceptional items of jewellery, such as a bracelet for Sarah Bernhardt and entrusted him with decorating his new shop, which opened in 1900 at 6, Rue Royale, Paris. He commissioned Desrosiers, a former pupil of Grasset, to design jewellery for everyday use.

Fouquet’s jewellery was known for its decorative character and clarity of execution. He frequently surrounded the outline of his pieces with a line of small diamonds to set off the main pattern. He often used enamels, appreciated for their transparency and delicate colour, and frequently combined them with opals chosen for their changing reflections, or baroque pearls, which displayed irregularities in their surface and material. He drew most of his inspiration from flora and fauna, which provided an inexhaustible repertoire of shapes and colours.

Fouquet made the present pendant after the design by Mucha and the decoration by Desrosiers.

The boutique of the jeweller Georges Fouquet, located at 6, rue Royale in Paris, was designed in 1901 by Alphonse Mucha. It was dismantled in 1923 and reconstructed in the Mus�e Carnavalet. The stained glass windows are by L�on Fargues, the sculptures by Auguste Seysses.

The boutique of the jeweller Georges Fouquet, located at 6, rue Royale in Paris, was designed in 1901 by Alphonse Mucha. It was dismantled in 1923, and the interior was reconstructed in the Mus�e Carnavalet.

This is a large brooch of gold and enamel in the form of a hornet hovering by a flower, the stem of the flower curves back on itself then swirls into the distance. It combines the ‘wavy line’ and the inspiration of flowers and insects - all typical features of Art Nouveau jewellery.

Georges Fouquet was one of France’s most innovative and brilliant jewellers, and this extraordinary brooch is among the finest examples of his work. Known as an orchid brooch, it is one of two known versions, the earliest of which first appeared in 1898. Executed in gold, pearls, mother of pearl, and pliqu�-à-jour enamel, there are several drawings of it in the Fouquet Archive in the Mus�e des Arts D�coratifs in Paris.

A number of the key jewellery designers of the period, including Fouquet, Ren� Lalique, Alphonse Mucha and Philippe Wolfers, were determined that their production was considered as art. Following their lead, modern jewellery came of age. There were developing vehicles for showing work. For example, there was a new incentive to submit jewellery to the Paris Salons for exhibition and competition. The Societ� Nationale des Beaux-Arts was established in 1890, the Salon d’Automne was founded in 1903, and in 1904 the Salon of the Societ� des Artistes D�corateurs was created. Through these and other venues, traditional sensibilities in the design of jewellery began to be challenged in France. Much of this challenge was manifested through the Art Nouveau style.

Taking its name from Siegfried Bing’s gallery, Maison de l’Art Nouveau, which opened in 1895, the style internationalised the idea of modern jewellery. Fouquet’s brooch is in the form of an orchid, a flower favoured by Art Nouveau designers, and its curving, sensuous naturalism marks it out as a beautiful example of the style.

This remarkable pendant marks a high point in the three-year partnership of Fouquet, the renowned French jeweller, and Alphonse Mucha, the Czech graphic artist whose work has become synonymous with Art Nouveau style. The two men collaborated from 1899 to 1901, during which time Mucha not only conceived a spectacular series of elaborate jewels executed by Fouquet’s Paris atelier but also designed a sumptuous new Fouquet showroom in the rue Royale, where the interior decoration specifically harmonized with the jewellery. The pendant reflects an early-twentieth-century shift away from the prevailing taste for precious stones in traditional historicist settings toward a new approach in which unorthodox materials were chosen for their contribution to the overall design in the belief that the beauty of a jewel depended on its artistic conception rather than the intrinsic value of its materials.

The pendant was designed by Alphonse Mucha and made by Georges Fouquet.