Lalique - Sculpteur de Lumiere

René Lalique (1860 - 1945)
René Lalique was born in the town of “Ay” of Champagne, France, where a rich natural environment remains even today. Following the advice of his mother, Lalique began to work as a jeweler’s apprentice when he was 16 years old. With only four years experience, Lalique started to receive orders from leading jewelry houses such as Cartier, and later he designed for the famous actress Sarah Bernhardt the jewelries she wore at her stage.
After working with the perfumery Coty, he switched his career to work with glass. Over the era of shifting from art nouveau to art deco, Lalique successfully became a master of both movements. He created a 15-meter tall glass fountain called “the Fountain of France” that served as the monument for the International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts in Paris (commonly known as the “Art Deco” Expo) in 1925. He also showed his talent in the world of architectural interior ornaments, as seen in the wagon of “Côte d’Azur Express” and the luxury ocean liner “Normandie.”