Rendezvous With Olaf Van Cleef

He is French, but Olaf Van Cleef’s love for India reflects in his artwork. Society catches up with this artist and jeweller extraordinaire and gets a delightful account of his Indian escapades.

- Kakoli Poddar

Cartier’s jeweller for India, Olaf Van Cleef, combines his passion for India and Indian spirituality into fine artwork. His artistic endeavours also blend his yen for jewellery, the result being exquisite paintings intricately embellished with Swarovski crystals, sequins and tiny chocolate foil wrappers. Each painting can be termed a jewel in itself. Having been a counsellor to Cartier on high-end jewellery for four decades, Olaf avers that his artistic endeavour is “inspired by the vibrant colours, the sights, sounds, smells and cultures of India”. His art exhibition at Kolkata’s Taj Bengal sometime back, was testimony to that fact.

Olaf is the scion of the famous aristocratic Van Cleef dynasty, known to export cheese from Paris to the Netherlands and were also jewellers to the Czars of Russia. Though a Dutch by origin, Olaf is based in Paris. But the lure of India entices him to visit the country again and again. As the Cartier consultant, he is a hot favourite of India’s aristocrats and royals. He shares secrets and stories with the Maharajas and Maharanis and is always asked to take a look at their precious jewels and advise them on the jewellery.

Olaf transforms his insomniac hours into a delight of colours. It is in the solitude of night and the early dawn that he finds solace in painting. “I paint from 2am to 7am, often listening to Mozart at that time. I have my breakfast at 2am and get on with my painting,” he tells us. From then, it is work as usual. He dons his business suit advising the rich and the famous on jewellery trends and design. When does he sleep? We ask. He smiles and says that he catches up with some sleep from 9pm to 2am.