Cross-Cultural Exchange

Far From Assuming A Euro-centric Point Of View, Luxury Jewellers Have Long Been Influenced By Stories And Cultures From Across The Globe. Dionne Bel Looks At How Three Brands From The West – Cartier, Boucheron And Van Cleef & Arpels Look To The East For Inspiration.

- Dionne Bel

CARTIER AND ISLAMIC ART

The story begins in 1847, when Louis-François Cartier established the house of Cartier, which originally specialised in the sale of jewellery and works of art. His son, Alfred, took over the business in 1874, and his eldest son, Louis, then joined him in 1898, when Cartier began to design its own jewellery, while continuing to resell antique pieces.

At the beginning of the 20th century, as Paris became the heart of the Islamic art trade, Louis doubtlessly observed the new abstract shapes that were circulating throughout French society and visited major exhibitions held at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris in 1903, and then in Munich in 1910, in his quest to seek out new sources of inspiration for his brand.

The Musée des Arts Décoratifs recently presented the exhibition, Cartier and Islamic Art: In Search of Modernity: Whereas cultural influences from the Far East, Egypt, Persia and India had already been studied and researched in detail, this exhibition marked the first time that the influence of Islamic art on Cartier's design of jewellery and precious objects from the start of the 20th century to present day had been investigated in-depth. It examined the source of this influence through the prism of the Parisian cultural scene, and the emblematic figures of Louis and Jacques Cartier, the Cartier founder's grandsons, who were central in conceiving this utterly modern new aesthetic. Louis' personal Islamic art collection, which he made available as resources for his designers, was reconstructed for the exhibition thanks to Cartier's archives and was represented through several works gathered for the first time since his collection's dispersion.