The Salon du Dessin de Paris has just opened its doors and for the second year in a row, the high jewellery house Chaumet is offering a beautiful temporary exhibition in the centre of the show. Last year’s exhibition focused on the art of the tiara and head jewellery, one of the company’s specialities. Through numerous unpublished sketches, we were able to discover rare and magnificent archives testifying to the numerous pieces that came out of the House’s workshops.
Viola arvensis sp. or Viola ×wittrockiana. Project for a “garden thought” brooch. Joseph Chaumet (1852-1926), drawing workshop. Graphite pencil, gouache and gouache highlights, grey ink wash and gum arabic highlights on translucent paper, circa 1890. Chaumet Collection Paris, inv.BDC-003-2-2. Photo: Chaumet
This year, with “Dess(e)in de Nature”, the Heritage Department explores the company’s main source of inspiration: nature in all its beauty and complexity. On the programme, a hundred drawings from the in-house graphic cabinet, which holds over 88,000 documents dating back to the end of the 18th century and the creation of the workshop by Nitot.
Hedera helix. Ivy” tiara project. Joseph Chaumet (1852-1926), drawing workshop. Graphite pencil, wash and gouache highlights on tinted paper, circa 1910. Chaumet Collection Paris, inv.D1-064-1. Photo: Chaumet
Also, push the doors of the Salon du Dessin. Firstly, because it is an ephemeral museum of rare quality, and secondly, because the exhibition proposed by Chaumet will enable you to discover documents, the oldest of which date back to 1830. Through the selected sketches, you will admire superb botanical representations, most of which have given rise to jewellery pieces of great quality. And you will be able to observe how, through their respective talents, the jewellers knew how to sublimate nature without betraying it or embellishing it.
Marsilea quadrifolia. Joseph Chaumet (1852-1926), drawing workshop. Project for a brooch. Wash and gouache highlights on translucent paper, circa 1910. Chaumet Collection, Paris, inv.B-28-558. Photo: Chaumet
In order to guide you through this jewellery herbarium, the company has called on the knowledge and scientific backing of Mr Marc Jeanson: an agricultural engineer and botanist, he has been in charge of the National Herbarium collections at the National Museum of Natural History in Paris since 2013, and was notably associate curator of the “Gardens” exhibition at the Grand Palais in 2017. Here he has carried out an important work of recognition of the species sublimated by the designers of the house in order to enlighten you on their natures.
Lonicera sp. and Dianthus sp. Two tiara designs for “honeysuckle” and “carnation”. Joseph Chaumet (1852-1926), drawing workshop. Graphite pencil, pen and grey ink, ink and gouache wash, gouache highlights on cream-coloured paper, circa 1900. Chaumet Collection Paris, inv.1900-1910-I-006. Photo: Chaumet
Finally, if you miss the Salon du Dessin, you can make up for it from 19 April to 15 June 2019, and then from 24 July to 14 September 2019, at 165 boulevard Saint-Germain in the Chaumet boutique, which opened its doors during the major renovation work on the Place Vendôme mansion.
Clematis sp., Ranunculus; Ranunculus sp. Fragaria vesca, Crataegus monogyna, Hedera helix and Calystegia sepium. Documentary studies of foliage, clematis, buttercups, wild strawberries, hawthorn, ivy and bindweed. Joseph Chaumet (1852-1926), drawing studio. Graphite pencil, wash and gouache highlights on translucent paper, circa 1885. Chaumet Collection Paris, inv.BDC-012-1. Photo: Chaumet
See you soon!
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The Salon du Dessin welcomes you until April 1, 2019.
From 12 noon to 8 pm.
Admission: 15€ (includes the exhibition catalogue).
Palais Brogniart, Place de la Bourse, 75002 Paris
