THE ART OF

CA R T I E R
24 oct. 2012 / 17 fe b. 2013
 T H E A RT O F C A RT I E R

Since 1983, Cartier has assembled jewellery, watches, clocks and other
precious objects into the Cartier Collection. Sourced from private
individuals, retailers or at auction, the more than 1,450 objects in this
growing collection have been selected according to criteria of style but
also the materials used and the techniques employed. Dating from the
1860s for the oldest items to the late 1990s, they are a material
reminder of Cartier’s 165-year history and, more widely, European
decorative arts and society from the end of the 19th century.
Since a first major presentation in 1989 at the Petit Palais in Paris,
the collection has been shown at internationally renowned museums.
For this new exhibition, The Art of Cartier, the Museo Thyssen-
Bornemisza has carefully selected more than 400 pieces representing
six themes which illustrate the stylistic evolution of Cartier. The
exhibition also includes prestigious private loans from the Spanish
Royal Family and the Palace of Monaco.
Enlargements of sketchbook pages, preparatory and production
drawings from Cartier’s Archives are projected onto the walls as
a reminder of the creative process that brought each of these pieces
to life. These Archives are today conserved in three centres —Paris,
London, and New York— and trace the life of every item, from its
inception in the workshops to the day of its sale. In addition to
drawings and sketches, they conserve life-size black-and-white
photographs, very rare autochromes, and plaster casts.
 Family portrait of Alfred Cartier with his three sons, Pierre,
Louis and Jacques, in Saint-Jean-de-Luz, 1922

From Apprentice to Rue de la Paix

In 1847 Louis-François Cartier (1819–1904) was employed by the

jeweller Adolphe Picard, at 29 Rue Montorgueil in Paris. When in
1847 Maître Picard moved, he left his business in the young man’s
hands. Six years later, Louis-François Cartier set up under his own
name close to the Palais Royal. The refinement of Cartier’s jewellery
of ancient and classical inspiration soon came to the attention of an
elegant clientele. Princess Mathilde, cousin of Emperor Napoleon III,
became acquainted with Cartier: the company’s ledgers record that she
purchased over two hundred items. In 1859 the Empress herself,
Eugénie de Montijo, ordered a silver tea service. That same year
Cartier moved to 9 Boulevard des Italiens, an area very much en vogue.
Alfred (1841–1925), Louis-François’s son, took over the company in
1874. Meanwhile, the discovery in the late 1860s of South Africa’s
 Fig. 1. Lily stomacher brooch. Cartier Paris,
special order, 1906

diamond deposits had enormous impact on the world of jewellery:

substantial quantities of fine quality stones suddenly became available.
Jewellery from that period was made with characteristic gold-backed
silver mounts and inspired by the Louis XVI style, also known as the
Garland style, which reached its peak in 1890 and would remain in
fashion until the First World War. In the meantime, to solve the
problem of silver oxidation, Cartier turned to platinum, whose
malleability, white colour and strength meant Cartier could sculpt
ethereal mounts resembling diamond lace and garlands [fig. 1].
Alfred had three sons: Louis (1875–1942), Pierre (1878–1964), and
Jacques (1884–1942). In 1898 Louis joined his father in the family
business followed by his brothers a few years later. He demonstrated
an eye for beauty and a head for business and convinced his father
to move to the city’s most elegant thoroughfare, 13 Rue de la Paix,
in 1899 which is still Cartier’s landmark building today.
Head Ornaments

Adopted as an insignia of royal power, the tiara evolved over the

centuries into increasingly precious versions that were symbols of the
high rank of the wearer. It returned to favour in the 19th century and
continued to exert its fascination until the end of the First World War.
Cartier’s first large tiaras were recorded at the turn of the 20th
century. While some were still made in gold-backed silver, most were
crafted from platinum. Garland-style jewellery, inspired by decorative
motifs of the 17th and 18th centuries, was a perfect match for the
requirements of Belle Époque fashion [fig. 2]. Just as imposing devant
de corsage were held in place by the corset, large tiaras were secured
by the hair drawn back into a chignon.
From 1907, the Russian influence produced marvels known as
kokoshniks (Russian for “cock’s comb”) inspired by a headdress in folk
costume. To lighten the heavy proportions suggested by the kokoshnik’s
solid form, Cartier made some with diamond drops suspended within
the mount.
The years between the two world wars were times of great change.
A period of short-lived prosperity, technical innovation and the
emancipation of women gave way to the worst economic depression
ever. Still, the newly conquered freedom transformed the way women
dressed and wore their hair. Heavy tiaras and imposing devant de corsage
no longer had their place. Worn on the forehead, the bandeau was
now in fashion [fig. 3]. Fashion changed again in the 1930s with the
return of a more feminine silhouette, a marked waistline and longer
hair. Although passé in Paris and New York, tiaras were still called for
at the royal court in London. However, a sign of difficult economic
times, so-called “fine” stones replaced more costly diamonds [fig. 4].
 Fig. 2. Scroll tiara. Cartier Paris, 1910
Fig. 3. Bandeau. Cartier New York, 1924
Fig. 4. Tiara. Cartier London, 1937
Modern Style and Art Deco

As early as 1904, there appeared designs notable for their geometric

lines and abstract shapes that broke with the Garland style [fig. 5].
The year 1909 was characterized by a major artistic event: Serge
Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes triumphed in Paris. The troupe’s explosive
use of colour juxtapositions entranced Louis Cartier. One of his
favourite combinations was blue and green, which was translated into
a beautiful blend of turquoise, lapis lazuli and jade or the more precious
sapphires and emeralds.
Onyx was used from the 1910s and would become a favourite
Cartier material. It would enhance diamonds and reinforce the lines
of a piece of jewellery. In 1914, one of the classic Cartier motifs made
its first appearance: the “panther-skin” pattern of diamond and onyx
[fig. 6]. From the 1910s to the 1930s, polished rock crystal became
another much-loved material for Cartier.
Indeed it was well before World War I that Cartier anticipated a new
style which would later be dubbed “Art Deco” in reference to the
1925 Exposition internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes.
Purely geometric forms became limited to the framing of brooches or
to the decorative patterning of objects such as cigarette cases [fig. 7].
At the end of the 1920s the Art Deco style began to echo the use of
light platinum and the brilliance of diamonds that had characterised
the tonal values at the beginning of the century.
Audacious stone cuts were used, such as the baguette-cut diamond: its
straight-edged, simple form visually conformed to geometric Art Deco
lines.
The distinctively flat and smooth-surfaced designs successively
developed into more voluminously styled creations during the 1930s as
jewels began to appear distinctively three-dimensional [fig. 8].
 Fig. 5. Brooch. Cartier Paris, 1904
Fig. 6. Panther-pattern watch-brooch. Cartier Paris, 1915
Fig. 7. Cigarette case. Cartier Paris, 1930
Fig. 8. Pyramid clip brooch. Cartier Paris, special order, 1935
 Fig. 9. Scarab brooch. Cartier London, 1924
Fig. 10. Chinese vanity case. Cartier Paris, 1928
Fig. 11. Tutti Frutti necklace. Cartier Paris, special order, 1936, altered in 1963
Fig. 12. Dragon brooch. Cartier Paris, special order, 1924
Oriental Influences

Louis Cartier had a passion for exotic cultures. While Islamic art truly
fascinated him—he had built up a very fine collection of Persian
miniatures—Egyptian, Chinese and Indian art were equally influential
on Cartier artworks from the beginning of the 1910s. He had
established a remarkable library of reference marks which served as
inspiration for the jewellery designs. He also sought out authentic
fragments of ancient art which entered the stock as apprêts and were
incorporated in jewellery and objects. It was the unusual combination
of non-European ancient art and modern mounts that led Cartier to
a unique interpretation of 1920s Art Deco pieces.

Egypt
Louis Cartier’s fascination with Egyptian civilisation and its cultural
heritage is manifested in his jewels from the 1910s where he
incorporated a particularly Egyptian touch. In 1922, Howard Carter’s
discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun brought Egypt back to the
centre of artistic attention. Cartier’s Egyptian-style pieces can be
categorised into two distinctive sets: jewels and objects decorated with
Egyptian-style ornamentation, as found in reference works, and those
that were embellished with an actual Egyptian antiquity such as a
fragment of blue-glazed faïence [fig. 9].

Persia – India
In 1911 Jacques Cartier travelled for the first time to India where he
witnessed the reverence with which Parisian jewels and watches were
treated by the maharajahs. These royals spent lavishly on Cartier pieces
and also entrusted their stones to the jeweller so that they could be set
in contemporary mounts, usually in platinum. This contact with India
also inspired Cartier to design his magnificent Indian-style parures.
Stones carved using ancient Indian gem-cutting techniques opened up
new avenues for Cartier. Rubies, sapphires and emeralds were carved
into leaves or fluted beads and set into fruit and foliage jewels that
became known as the Tutti Frutti pieces [fig. 11].

The Far East

The Far East is a source of inspiration that led Cartier to create some
outstanding works of art. The Art Deco period saw a huge surge
in popularity in vanity and cigarette cases. Their varied dimensions
gave the designers a great deal of freedom in their creations, as seen
in a vanity case depicting a Chinese legend of long-lasting friendship
[fig. 10]. Antique jade was a favourite in the jewellery designs, as,
for example, in a brooch made from an 18th- or 19th-century
Chinese belt clasp [fig. 12].

The Power of Style – Iconic Clients

During the first three decades of the 20th century, there emerged
in Paris a new kind of social atmosphere out of which “Café Society”
was born. Its Golden Age spanned roughly two decades from the
1930s onwards and it was during this time that marriages between the
grandest aristocratic European families and the heirs of great American
fortunes gave birth to a new elite class that was rich, cultivated and
audacious. Its members bubbled over with imaginative creativity and
spent fortunes making their lives a veritable work of art.
The Duchess of Windsor was one of the reigning queens of
Café Society, rivalling in elegance her contemporaries Daisy Fellowes
and Mona Bismarck. Jewellery played a significant role as a statement
of sophistication and the Duchess’s Flamingo brooch [fig. 13], Panther
 Fig. 13. Flamingo brooch. Cartier Paris, special order, 1940
Fig. 14. Necklace. Cartier Paris, 1951, altered in 1953

brooch [fig. 23] as well as a splendid necklace from 1947 are fine
examples of her own daring elegance.
From the 1950s other iconic clients turned to Cartier. In 1956,
Grace Kelly married Prince Rainier of Monaco. The prince ordered
his beloved’s engagement ring from Cartier. The bride’s trousseau also
included a large diamond necklace, a diamond bracelet, and three ruby
and diamond clips.
Elizabeth Taylor, too, was a faithful client. Her love of jewellery
became legendary and she was indulged by the amorous men in her life.
In 1957 Mike Todd gave her a Cartier ruby and diamond necklace
[fig. 14]. In the late 50s and 70s, the boldest commissions ever were
the jewellery ordered by the Mexican actress María Félix. A reptile
enthusiast, she approached Cartier to create her unique Snake necklace
and pair of earrings as well as her Crocodile necklace [fig. 21].
 Fig. 15. Mignonnette clock. Cartier Paris, 1911
Fig. 16. Santos wristwatch. Cartier Paris, 1915
Fig. 17. Visiting card with envelope. Cartier, special order, ca. 1927
Fig. 18. Jean Cocteau’s Academician's sword. Cartier Paris, 1955
Precious Time, Precious Objects

The Maison has offered clocks and watches since 1853. In 1904, Louis
Cartier would present the Brazilian aviator Alberto Santos-Dumont
with a watch whose dial he could consult while at the commands of
his airship.
On sale to the public beginning in 1911, the Santos wristwatch was
the first timepiece with a case expressly designed to be worn on the
wrist [fig. 16]. The three models that followed were greeted with
the same instant success: the Tonneau wristwatch in 1906, the Tortue
wristwatch in 1912, and the Tank wristwatch in 1919.
When in 1900 Louis Cartier visited the Universal Exposition in
Paris, he fell under the spell of Fabergé delicate guilloché enamel.
Henceforth, Cartier’s stock would include numerous desk clocks in
pastel-coloured enamel [fig. 15], together with objects in the Russian
style, such as hardstone animals and flowers.
Until the late 1930s, ladies’ jewellery wristwatches favoured
platinum and diamonds. In the 1940s, Cartier preferred to work
with gold. The bracelets were fashioned into chains, bangles or
flexible mesh.

Unique and Symbolic Objects

Numerous accessories were embellished with a monogram or a coat
of arms at the customer’s request. During the 1920s and 1930s, such
elitism often resulted in a personal message engraved on an object for
the future owner [fig. 17].
Many exceptional pieces were also commissioned from Cartier to
coincide with important events in the worlds of art, literature, politics,
sport or science. One example conserved in the Cartier Collection
is Jean Cocteau’s Academician’s sword [fig. 18].
 Fig. 19. Model A Mystery clock. Cartier Paris, 1914
Fig. 20. Large Portique Mystery clock. Cartier Paris, 1923

Mystery clocks
Mystery clocks resulted from a joint endeavour between Louis Cartier
and a gifted clockmaker, Maurice Couët, Cartier’s exclusive supplier of
table clocks. He took inspiration from the illusionist and clockmaker
Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin (1805–1871) to create clocks whose
hands appear to float inside a transparent dial, seemingly unconnected
to the movement, hence their “mystery”.
In 1912 he devised the first Mystery clock for Cartier, known simply
as Model A, similar to the clock in the Collection [fig. 19]. In 1920
Couët perfected the “central axle” model. This system gave Cartier
greater freedom to vary the form and decoration of its Mystery clocks.
In an unprecedented feat of technique in 1923 the movement was
housed inside the top of a Portique clock [fig. 20].
 Fig. 21. Crocodile necklace. Cartier Paris, special order, 1975

Flora and Fauna

In 1933, Louis appointed Jeanne Toussaint (1887–1978) head of

Cartier’s Fine Jewellery department. From that time to the 1960s,
Toussaint —nicknamed “the Panther”— enjoyed enormous success in
this role thanks to her outstanding intelligence and creativity.
Toussaint’s touch was such that it created a new standard of taste that
was dubbed “goût Toussaint”. It was under her infallible instincts that
flora and fauna became representative of a fantastic world and testimony
to a new sensibility for nature that was altogether unlike the geometric
stylization of Art Deco. Marking a definitive break from the use of
monochrome platinum and diamonds, Toussaint’s directorship oversaw
the reintroduction of yellow gold.
 Fig. 22. Palm-tree clip brooch. Cartier Paris, special order, 1957
Fig. 23. Panther clip brooch. Cartier Paris, 1949

It was during the eventual return to prosperity in the 1950s that fine
jewellery in platinum, diamonds and precious stones reappeared in
Cartier’s windows. An almost naturalistic, a three-dimensional Palm-
tree brooch created in 1957 is an outstanding example from that period
[fig. 22].
Jeanne Toussaint became a mouthpiece for the most sophisticated
women of the time. Many of the Duchess of Windsor’s jewels
were designed in collaboration with her, such as her Panther brooch
[fig. 23] in which the animal sits on a 152.35-carat Kashmir sapphire
cabochon.
Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza Free admission:
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Dates Transport
24 October 2012 to 17 February 2013. Metro: Banco de España.
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Train: Atocha, Sol and Recoletos stations.
First Basement galleries, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza.
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before closing.
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At the Museum’s ticket desks
www.museothyssen.org Audio-Guide
Tel: 902 760 511 Available in Spanish, English and French.
Ticket prices
General: Mobile telephones must not be used
Thyssen-Bornemisza Collections: 9,00 ¤ in the exhibition rooms.
The Art of Cartier exhibition: 8,00 ¤
Combined ticket for Thyssen-Bornemisza
Collections and The Art of Cartier exhibition:
12,00 ¤
Senior citizens (65 and over), pensioners, Carné Joven
holders, Fine Arts teachers, students, Disabled
with 33% rating and members of large families,
with proof of status: Illustration credits
– Thyssen-Bornemisza Collections: 6,00 ¤
– The Art of Cartier exhibition: 5,50 ¤ Cartier Archives © Cartier
– Combined ticket for Thyssen-Bornemisza Nick Welsh, Cartier Collection © Cartier
Collections and The Art of Cartier exhibition: Nils Herrmann, Cartier Collection © Cartier
7,50 ¤ Marian Gérard, Cartier Collection © Cartier
Kingfisher brooch. Cartier Paris, 1941 Front cover: Kingfisher clip brooch
Graphite and bodycolour on buff tracing paper Cartier Paris, 1941

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