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Lot Essay
This rare screen is a fine example of Suzanne’s inspiration. Like her father, she translated nature into her distinct vision – stylized compositions of colour and line. The dynamic arrangements of the tree branches and the use of black, blue and silver as dominant colours situate the screen to around 1920.
Suzanne Lalique was a talented, multi-faceted artist capable of transforming the various materials she experimented with – glass, porcelain, fabric or paint – into true works of art. Born in 1892, the daughter of René Lalique enjoyed a career worthy of her name. Her distinct achievements were largely overlooked however until the 1912 Musée Lalique exhibition Suzanne Lalique-Haviland – Le décor réinventé. The original design drawing for this screen is in the collection of the Musée Lalique and is illustrated on page 27 of the catalogue of the above exhibition.
From the age of 17, encouraged by her father, Suzanne contributed to the development of the family glassworks, creating her first design of a powder box for Coty in 1910. There followed a prolific period of work, attracting important private clients, surely the most distinguished being Jacques Doucet, the famous couturier, art patron and collector, who became her client in 1913 and commissioned four decorative screens.
Records confirm the execution by Suzanne Lalique, between 1914 and 1927, of more than a dozen painted screens. Only a few of the original designs and two screens, however, are known to have survived– one in the collection of the Musée Lalique and the present lot, acquired by the family of the current owner directly from Lalique at the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes in Paris in 1925.
Christie's would like to thank Véronique Brumm for her assistance cataloguing this lot.
Suzanne Lalique was a talented, multi-faceted artist capable of transforming the various materials she experimented with – glass, porcelain, fabric or paint – into true works of art. Born in 1892, the daughter of René Lalique enjoyed a career worthy of her name. Her distinct achievements were largely overlooked however until the 1912 Musée Lalique exhibition Suzanne Lalique-Haviland – Le décor réinventé. The original design drawing for this screen is in the collection of the Musée Lalique and is illustrated on page 27 of the catalogue of the above exhibition.
From the age of 17, encouraged by her father, Suzanne contributed to the development of the family glassworks, creating her first design of a powder box for Coty in 1910. There followed a prolific period of work, attracting important private clients, surely the most distinguished being Jacques Doucet, the famous couturier, art patron and collector, who became her client in 1913 and commissioned four decorative screens.
Records confirm the execution by Suzanne Lalique, between 1914 and 1927, of more than a dozen painted screens. Only a few of the original designs and two screens, however, are known to have survived– one in the collection of the Musée Lalique and the present lot, acquired by the family of the current owner directly from Lalique at the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes in Paris in 1925.
Christie's would like to thank Véronique Brumm for her assistance cataloguing this lot.