Rene Lalique: Part 2

In 1880, at the age of 20, Lalique returned to Paris after completing his two-year stay at Sydenham and, to add another couple of strings to his bow, began to train as a sculptor at l’ecole Bernard Palissy whilst, concurrently working as a wallpaper and fabric designer for his relative: Vuilleret. Vuilleret was quite damning of Lalique’s jewelry designs, saying that they would lead nowhere.

By the following year, Rene had found his first career path, one that would take up twenty years of his life and started to professionally design jewelry. Shortly afterward, with the help of a family friend and partner named Varenne, he started to take on free-lance work for some of the period’s larger names in French jewelry: Aucoc, Boucheron, Cartier, Destape, Gariod, Jacquet and Renn in addition to several others. And, also found time to continue his studies as a sculptor.

At the end of 1885, one of Lalique’s patrons, Jules Destape, retired and, despite some initial misgivings on Rene’s part, ownership of the workshop was transferred to him. As well as the bricks and mortar, the workshop came to him fully staffed and now, for the first time, free from the restrictions imposed upon him by his employers and their clients, Lalique could create his own Art Nouveau designs. Which, regularly featured in “le Bijou”, a jewelry trade magazine and were met with much praise and imitation from his contemporaries. He tended to steer clear of the usual expensive materials associated with his craft and, instead used such things as translucent enamels, semi-precious stones, ivory and hard stones

In 1886, Rene married his first wife, Marie-Louise Lambert who gave birth to their daughter Georgette in the same year.

Due to the overwhelming success of Lalique’s jewelry and the rapid growth of his business, by 1887, he had outgrown Destape’s old workshop and rented a second one. He ran both workshops concurrently until 1890, when larger premises were procured to house his, by now, thirty staff. This was where he met his later-to-be second wife, daughter of the sculptor Auguste Ledru: Augustine Alice. They took up residence in the apartment above Rene’s workshop.

Lalique viewed his works as miniature art forms rather than jewelry and used expensive diamonds and rubies to “support” the interplay between the other materials that he used. Always, the theme of his work mimicked his beloved nature.

In 1892 Augustine gave Rene his second daughter, Suzanne on the 4th May. In the same year, Lalique started to incorporate glass into his works and in the following year, Lalique entered a competition organized by the Union Centrale des Arts Décoratifs, the theme being a drinking vessel. He walked away with the second prize of five hundred francs for his entry of a “Thistle Flowers Goblet” and a medal and a commendation for his “Satyr and Vine Shoots Mug”.

The following years through to the beginning of the Twentieth Century saw Lalique’s work being displayed at several of the major exhibitions in Brussels and Paris. And finally, the 1900 Exposition Universelle Internationale in Paris saw Lalique’s work met with universal praise and admiration. At the age of 40, he had reached the pinnacle of his career as a jeweler.

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