Rene-Jules Lalique (1860-1945) was an exceptional French glass designer, known for his sinuous Art Nouveau jewelry, perfume bottles, vases, tableware, even chandeliers. He was a prodigious talent and now you can see just how inspired he was in the Lalique Museum which opened in July 2011.
The Lalique Museum
The museum is in the small village of Wingen-sur-Moder in the Vosges mountains in Alsace, the place where Lalique built his glass factory in 1919. It’s a low building with side galleries constructed around a pretty garden courtyard. Inside, dark galleries with black floors and black walls display the pieces dramatically. The captions and explanations, in French, English and German, bring the man and his epoque to life in a very effective way.
40 pieces of crystal were donated by the Lalique company; the chairman of the company, Silvio Denz, has loaned 230 perfume bottles; others come from private collectors and Paris museums. All in all, there are 500 objects on display.
Lalique as jeweler
Rene Lalique was apprenticed to Parisian goldsmith Louis Aucoc at the age of 16. He went to Sydenham Art College in London to study and came under the influence of the British Arts and Crafts Movement. On his return to Paris he began his career making models of pieces of jewellery for Boucheron, Cartier and other great names. He opened his own shop in 1885 and within five years was recognized as one of the top Art Nouveau jewelry designers.
His designs were both beautiful and avant-garde. He was inspired by flora, fauna, and women, and he combined materials in a daring way that nobody had attempted before. Precious stones and ivory, diamonds and vividly colored enamels are used together to make jewelry in the shapes of graceful swans, blossoms and leaves, as brooches, necklaces and pendants. They were highly prized during his time; today they fetch huge prices.
The jewelry pieces are the first objects you see. They include a comb in blonde horn with a gold-and-enamel ‘Sunset Landscape’ (ca 1900) and a pendant of ‘Four Dragonflies’ in gold, enamel and diamonds around aquamarine (ca 1904-6), items bought by the likes of Sarah Bernhardt who had a particular passion for jewelry, and the oil supremo Calouste Gulbenkian.
Lalique exhibited at the hugely inmportant Universal Exhibition in Paris in 1900 which you see in a flickering film. It confirmed him as one of the world's great jewelers.
Lalique as glassmaker
By the early 1900s, Lalique was fascinated by glassmaking. He met the perfumer Francois Coty in 1908 and designed the first of his superb perfume bottles. The gallery of perfume bottles at the museum is extraordinary. Lalique believed that every perfume should have its own bottle design and was commissioned by the likes of Roger & Galler and Molinard and here they sit, in different sizes, shapes and colors.
The display of his glasswork continues with the vases, tableware and decorative pieces that are perhaps the best known pieces by Lalique – items like the Bacchantes’ vase of 1927, which has a video showing how it is still made in the Wingen factory today. He also designed chandeliers and a monumental fountain.
Lalique died on May 5th, 1945 and is buried in Pere Lachaise Cemetery in Paris. His children carried on the artistic tradition. His daughter, Suzanne, worked for her father, then later went into theater design. Son Marc Lalique (1900-1977) turned the glassworks into a crystal manufacturer, and designed the doves for Nina Ricci’s L’Air du Tmeps’ perfume bottle.
Practical Information
Rue du HochbergWingen-sur-Moder
Website
Open April 1st to September 30th, daily 10am-7pm
October 1st to March 31st Tuesday to Sunday 10am-6pm (open also on public holidays)
Last tickets are sold one hour before closing time
Closed December 25th, January 1st and during January except for school holidays. Admission Adult: 6 euros, children 6 to 18 years: 3 euros, family pass for one or two adults and up to five children (to 18 years old): 14 euros
There’s a good coffee shop for light meals and an excellent shop also.
Getting to the Musee Lalique
If you’re coming from the UK, get to Strasbourg by Eurostar. From there, take the Strasbourg-Sarreguemines-Sarrebruck regional express which takes 45 minutes from Strasbourg. The museum is 2 km from the station.
From Strasbourg take the A4 autoroute north-west direction Saarbrucken. Take the D919 west towards Iagwiller into the Vosges National Park. It’s a pretty drive to Wingen-sur-Moder which is on the D919
