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Lavish exhibit mirrors bygone era of unbridled luxury
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Reviewed by Fran Heller
Contributing Writer
It was called the Belle Epoque, or “beautiful era,” a gilded age at the turn of the 20th century when, for the privileged few, unbridled wealth and conspicuous consumption ruled the day.
That period of opulence, ostentation and self-indulgence is re-imagined in the exhibit “Artistic Luxury: Fabergé, Tiffany, Lalique” at The Cleveland Museum of Art through Jan. 18.
More than 300 objects are on display, including Fabergé’s fabled eggs, Tiffany’s lamps, Lalique’s jewelry and glass creations.
Created by Stephen Harrison, museum curator of decorative art and design, the show, five years in preparation, reunites the works of the three most important and successful designers in the world in 1900.
They were Carl Fabergé from Russia, Louis Comfort Tiffany from America, and René Lalique from France. These legendary artists/entrepreneurs have not been presented together since the 1900 World’s Fair in Paris.
The recent implosion of our own gilded age raises the question of appropriateness of a show wallowing in unapologetic luxury. So much for timing!
At the same time, the lavish exhibit serves as a cautionary tale about an age of excess and decadence decried by the social critics of the day as “a moment when the ripe slips over towards the rotten.” The winds of war, revolution and the Great Depression would soon blow everything away. But, for that brief moment, as the Emcee in “Cabaret” reminds us about decadent Berlin before WW II, “life was beautiful.”
So is the exhibit, a feast for the senses in which these luxury goods are appropriately seen as works of art.
The handsomely mounted show also celebrates the opening of the new special exhibition space in the East Wing to great effect.
The first gallery is devoted to “Jewelry and Luxury” and the period of from 1900 to WW I.
Opening nights at the opera were dubbed “tiara nights.” A dazzling display of these jeweled crowns can be ogled alongside cloak and bodice ornaments, opera glasses, lorgnettes and “dog collars” (the latter worn tightly around the neck) dripping in diamonds, pearls and other gems.
Luxury was not exclusive to personal adornments. A small desk clock in silver gilt, a pair of silver candelabras, and an elegant tea service and tea table from the House of Fabergé were crafted by Jewish workmaster Julius Rappoport. (According to Wikipedia, a Jewish artisan was a rarity in the House of Fabergé.)
The pivotal event in the design world was the 1900 World’s Fair in Paris. Here, Fabergé, Tiffany and Lalique competed for attention and clients.
In the gallery devoted to objects at the Paris fair, one of my favorites is Fabergé’s “Imperial Lilies-of-the-Valley Basket,” with its blossoms nesting in spun gold. It is described in the catalogue as the crowning achievement of Fabergé’s jeweled flower creations.
You can almost smell the flowers in Tiffany’s stained glass “Magnolia Window” (another favorite), which comes from the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, Russia, and is shown for the first time.
Lalique adds a streak of morbidity to his jewelry designs with “Necklace with Insect Women and Black Swans” and “Pendant with Serpents,” in which intertwining snakes clasp pearls in their fangs.
Tiffany & Co. used 23 pounds of gold to create “The Adam’s Vase,” considered one of the finest achievements in gold and America’s equivalent to Fabergé’s eggs.
Fabergé was court jeweler to the Russian Imperial family. Each year the Czar commissioned two eggs, one for the Czarina and one for his mother.
Eight Fabergé eggs are on display.
The “Imperial Blue Serpent Egg” assumes the form of a clock in which a serpent’s tongue points to the time along a band of Roman numerals. It was given to Princess Grace of Monaco by her husband Prince Rainier and was considered one of her favorites. The egg is being seen in public for the first time.
The House of Fabergé made two imperial Easter eggs in 1915 honoring the contributions of the Czarina and her two eldest daughters to the war effort as Red Cross Sisters of Mercy.
Louis Tiffany incorporated native Indian themes in his jewelry and glass, such as his “Indian-style Pendant” using Native American turquoise and his “American Indian Basket Desk Lamp,” which looks like it was woven from glass. His signature statement was his Favrile, or hand-blown glass.
A row of Tiffany lamps couple whimsy with brilliant color and extraordinary design. Note the eyelike spots in the “Peacock Lamp,” the spider clinging to its cobweb-like shade in “Spider Lamp,” the leafy formations in “Autumn Leaf Globe Lamp,” and the mushroom-shaped “Night Lamp.”
In “Landscape with a Greek Temple,” Tiffany created an idyllic outdoor scene as an ornamental window for a Cleveland patron.
Unlike Fabergé and Tiffany who inherited a creative empire, Lalique was self-taught and self-made. Lalique established his reputation first in jewelry, moving exclusively into glass production after his wife’s death. His jewelry attracted the attention of famed actress Sarah Bernhardt; their long association catapulted his name and reputation.
Lalique borrowed from nature for his motifs, as in his “Butterfly Brooch,” “Moth Pendant,” “Bat Necklace” and “Dragonflies Headband.”
The natural world informed his glass creations also, as in the modernistic “Frogs and Lily Pads Vase” from the museum’s permanent collection.
Though heirlooms of a bygone era, these magnificent luxury goods continue to dazzle the eye and stoke the imagination.
WHAT: “Artistic Luxury: Fabergé, Tiffany, Lalique”
WHERE: Cleveland Museum of Art
WHEN: Through Jan. 18
TICKETS & INFO: 888-CMA-0033 or www.ClevelandArt.org/tickets
Contributing Writer
It was called the Belle Epoque, or “beautiful era,” a gilded age at the turn of the 20th century when, for the privileged few, unbridled wealth and conspicuous consumption ruled the day.
That period of opulence, ostentation and self-indulgence is re-imagined in the exhibit “Artistic Luxury: Fabergé, Tiffany, Lalique” at The Cleveland Museum of Art through Jan. 18.
More than 300 objects are on display, including Fabergé’s fabled eggs, Tiffany’s lamps, Lalique’s jewelry and glass creations.
Created by Stephen Harrison, museum curator of decorative art and design, the show, five years in preparation, reunites the works of the three most important and successful designers in the world in 1900.
They were Carl Fabergé from Russia, Louis Comfort Tiffany from America, and René Lalique from France. These legendary artists/entrepreneurs have not been presented together since the 1900 World’s Fair in Paris.
The recent implosion of our own gilded age raises the question of appropriateness of a show wallowing in unapologetic luxury. So much for timing!
At the same time, the lavish exhibit serves as a cautionary tale about an age of excess and decadence decried by the social critics of the day as “a moment when the ripe slips over towards the rotten.” The winds of war, revolution and the Great Depression would soon blow everything away. But, for that brief moment, as the Emcee in “Cabaret” reminds us about decadent Berlin before WW II, “life was beautiful.”
So is the exhibit, a feast for the senses in which these luxury goods are appropriately seen as works of art.
The handsomely mounted show also celebrates the opening of the new special exhibition space in the East Wing to great effect.
The first gallery is devoted to “Jewelry and Luxury” and the period of from 1900 to WW I.
Opening nights at the opera were dubbed “tiara nights.” A dazzling display of these jeweled crowns can be ogled alongside cloak and bodice ornaments, opera glasses, lorgnettes and “dog collars” (the latter worn tightly around the neck) dripping in diamonds, pearls and other gems.
Luxury was not exclusive to personal adornments. A small desk clock in silver gilt, a pair of silver candelabras, and an elegant tea service and tea table from the House of Fabergé were crafted by Jewish workmaster Julius Rappoport. (According to Wikipedia, a Jewish artisan was a rarity in the House of Fabergé.)
The pivotal event in the design world was the 1900 World’s Fair in Paris. Here, Fabergé, Tiffany and Lalique competed for attention and clients.
In the gallery devoted to objects at the Paris fair, one of my favorites is Fabergé’s “Imperial Lilies-of-the-Valley Basket,” with its blossoms nesting in spun gold. It is described in the catalogue as the crowning achievement of Fabergé’s jeweled flower creations.
You can almost smell the flowers in Tiffany’s stained glass “Magnolia Window” (another favorite), which comes from the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, Russia, and is shown for the first time.
Lalique adds a streak of morbidity to his jewelry designs with “Necklace with Insect Women and Black Swans” and “Pendant with Serpents,” in which intertwining snakes clasp pearls in their fangs.
Tiffany & Co. used 23 pounds of gold to create “The Adam’s Vase,” considered one of the finest achievements in gold and America’s equivalent to Fabergé’s eggs.
Fabergé was court jeweler to the Russian Imperial family. Each year the Czar commissioned two eggs, one for the Czarina and one for his mother.
Eight Fabergé eggs are on display.
The “Imperial Blue Serpent Egg” assumes the form of a clock in which a serpent’s tongue points to the time along a band of Roman numerals. It was given to Princess Grace of Monaco by her husband Prince Rainier and was considered one of her favorites. The egg is being seen in public for the first time.
The House of Fabergé made two imperial Easter eggs in 1915 honoring the contributions of the Czarina and her two eldest daughters to the war effort as Red Cross Sisters of Mercy.
Louis Tiffany incorporated native Indian themes in his jewelry and glass, such as his “Indian-style Pendant” using Native American turquoise and his “American Indian Basket Desk Lamp,” which looks like it was woven from glass. His signature statement was his Favrile, or hand-blown glass.
A row of Tiffany lamps couple whimsy with brilliant color and extraordinary design. Note the eyelike spots in the “Peacock Lamp,” the spider clinging to its cobweb-like shade in “Spider Lamp,” the leafy formations in “Autumn Leaf Globe Lamp,” and the mushroom-shaped “Night Lamp.”
In “Landscape with a Greek Temple,” Tiffany created an idyllic outdoor scene as an ornamental window for a Cleveland patron.
Unlike Fabergé and Tiffany who inherited a creative empire, Lalique was self-taught and self-made. Lalique established his reputation first in jewelry, moving exclusively into glass production after his wife’s death. His jewelry attracted the attention of famed actress Sarah Bernhardt; their long association catapulted his name and reputation.
Lalique borrowed from nature for his motifs, as in his “Butterfly Brooch,” “Moth Pendant,” “Bat Necklace” and “Dragonflies Headband.”
The natural world informed his glass creations also, as in the modernistic “Frogs and Lily Pads Vase” from the museum’s permanent collection.
Though heirlooms of a bygone era, these magnificent luxury goods continue to dazzle the eye and stoke the imagination.
WHAT: “Artistic Luxury: Fabergé, Tiffany, Lalique”
WHERE: Cleveland Museum of Art
WHEN: Through Jan. 18
TICKETS & INFO: 888-CMA-0033 or www.ClevelandArt.org/tickets
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