Studio: international art (35.1905)

The Lalique Exhibition

man, for are we not rather in the habit of measur-
ing achievement in art not alone by the beauty of
results, but also by outside reasons ? We rather
like an artist to have a moral pose, and we may
be inclined to begrudge praise to art dedicated
to fashion. In Messrs. Agnew’s galleries in Bond
Street M. Lalique has exhibited his treasures—■
his creations of alabaster and jewels. Each case
sprang upon us some revelation of delicate artistry
and resource in design. To read the catalogue is
to read a poem : “ Diademe, orchidees et diamants.
Broche : clematites, email translucide. Bague :

CUP IN IVORY, ENAMELS, AND GOLD BY R. LALIQUE

(By permission op Messrs. T. Agnew & Sons)

i perle rose ” ; and so on almost in order. “Peigne :
paons blancs, corne sculptee, topazes et diamants.
Bijou noeud de serpents, perles fines,” it continues.
Lalique is not without conventions—he has his
limitations; to our mind, too much of his talent
goes to the imitation of beautiful natural forms
and flowers in unnaturaldooking material, which
suggests sometimes an unpleasant decadence. The
imitation orchids as hat-pins seem to absorb too
much time and skill; and in looking at all this
energy put into the manufacture of an ignoble
form of sham, it seems a pitiful waste of talents in
one whose hands have often modelled
in the Grecian spirit. Whether there
is a market in England for the more
beautiful of the adornments in which
M. Lalique has shown his skill we cannot
say, but in any case the exhibition was
a success. For, to pass from jewelled
pendants to an ornamented and elabor-
ate dagger, from dishes with beautiful
silver figures to pieces with exquisite
ornamentation in gold, all carried to
a level of execution not surpassed in
modern things, was to be at an exhibi-
tion showing the success of a fine artist
in every department of his chosen work.
And we could feel that the exhibition
had not been worked up to by great
effort, but that there was shown here
only part of the works from a great
talent, and that one would meet other
phases of the artist’s work in the pos-
session of the rich in Paris—that this
exhibition did not comprise a record,
but was a selected show.

In the reference which we made to
what seemed a low form of imitation
for genius to squander itself upon, we
do not mean to express the same regret
about all the imitations of flowers which
have come from thehands of M. Lalique.
In many cases, such for instance as in
the comb in our illustration, this imita-
tive skill is combined with a natural
sympathy for the delicate forms of
flowers and their contrasts in colour
which largely contribute to the great
beauty of many of his designs, and as
far apart from the unpalatable skill
which, if the work were not Lalique’s,
would lead us to look upon the imita-
tion in the orchids as bordering
at times upon a kind of successful

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