School of Jewelry Arts Exhibition: A new art, metamorphosis of jewelry

The School of Jewelry Arts has organized an exhibition, as spectacular as ever, from June 2 to September 30, 2023. This exhibition highlights the importance of jewelry at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. It presents a unique collection of nearly 100 pieces from museums, heritage and private collections.

Van Cleef & Arpels: The metamorphosis of jewelry 

At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, the movement ofArt Nouveau emerged in France, influenced by scientific advances and a creative imagination. Jewelry has become a central element of this poetics of the art object, allowing great creative freedom in the use of materials, stones and shapes. 

The designers drew their inspiration from nature, giving life to dynamic and colorful designs. 

The exhibition “Fairy Natures, Blooms, Abstractions” presents jewelry originals that reflect this innovative aesthetic, inspired by literature and science. This exhibition is part of the scientific mission of L’École des Arts Joailliers, supported by Van Cleef & Arpels, which aims to place the jewel in a broader artistic context.

The magical nature of Art Nouveau jewelry

This exhibition evokes nostalgia for a past where the arts were not compartmentalized, and where artists looked to bygone eras for inspiration. The Renaissance and the Middle Ages thus influenced artistic creation. The Museum of Comparative Sculpture, created by Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc, notably exhibited fantastic sculptures such as gargoyles and chimeras, which nourished the imagination of the end of the 19th century. 

Symbolism then reinterpreted these forms to create a fantastical universe, populated by hybrid creatures and monsters. Artists of this period also explored subjects such as reverie, sleep, night and nightmare, as well as the aquatic universe, a disturbing and fascinating source of inspiration.

A renewed imagination of Art Nouveau

From the 1880s, the decorative arts opened up to a sometimes disconcerting thematic diversity, allowing artists to explore the most innovative trends and to make the object a creative medium in its own right. Contacts with the Far East increased, and the discovery of these distant productions amazed the artists. 

Advances in science were widely disseminated through publishing, the press, illustration and exhibitions. Symbolist research found fertile ground for the invention of forms in precious artifacts, elevated to the rank of works of art.

Rooted in a romantic philosophy of nature that views things as works of art - shells, fossils, corals, bird feathers, reptiles, snowflakes, algae and hair.

Unique materials

THE Art Nouveau jewelry is characterized by a subtle mixture of stones, metals and materials of different values, where the beauty of the object is determined by its artistic conception rather than by the cost of the elements that compose it. 

Colored stones such as quartz, beryl, peridots, chrysoprase, topaz, tourmaline or garnet have been widely used to brighten up the jewelry house.

 Glass has also become a jewelry ornament in its own right. Organic materials such as coral, mother-of-pearl, pearl, amber, horn, tortoiseshell or ivory were used for their particular shape and hue. Finally, enamel experienced a revival with the rediscovery and improvement of some of its ancient applications. Designers from the Symbolist movement were particularly attracted to enamel, which produces a colored luminous depth close to that of precious stones.

To continue the experience of art nouveau or if you cannot go to this exhibition, find our jewelry collections from this Art Nouveau period.