The fairytale world of Van Cleef & Arpels jewelry is touching and poetic, filled with dreamy creations that give a sense of wonder. I’ll tell you about this jewelry house and its founders next time, but today we’ll talk about a collection of iconic jewelry
A modern revival of a former series of ballerina brooches. Twelve charming princesses who dance to the music of dreams. They, like delicate flowers, swirl on the waves of a waltz...
The series was created in 2018:
The first ballerinas in the form of brooches appeared at Van Cleef & Arpels in the distant forties of the 20th century.
Van Cleef & Arpels first began producing precious tokens of ballet love shortly after opening a store in New York in 1939. The company's designer, Maurice Duval, created a sparkling ballet troupe. He took as a basis images of famous historical dancers, portraits captured by artists and, of course, photos of ballet dancers
Spanish dancer in emerald, rubies and rose cut diamonds made by Van Cleef & Arpels in 1941.
Another piece, made in 1942, was inspired by the eighteenth-century French dancer Marie Anne de Coupy de Camargo. Known as La Camargo, the dancer became famous for shortening her ballet skirt to calf length so that audiences could see her movements.
The Van Cleef & Arpels brooch, created in honor of the dancer, is based on a 1730 painting by artist Nicolas Lancret.
Late 1940th-century photographs of Russian dancer Anna Pavlova curtsying inspired Van Cleef & Arpels to create another brooch from the XNUMXs.
The prima ballerina of the Imperial Russian Ballet and Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes was one of the first ballerinas to tour the world.
Dancers, made by jewelers in Paris in the 1940s, were "daytime" jewelry, made of gold, diamonds, turquoise and rubies.
More flashy models were usually made in New York from platinum with diamonds, rubies, and emeralds.
The collection was very popular and was bought up by collectors from America (as we all remember, Europe was at war... not to mention Russia)
The brooch depicts an American ballerina of German origin, who took a Russian pseudonym, Vera Zorina (the second wife of George Balanchine). Balanchine gave this brooch to his wife.
Claude Arpels, the founder of the company, and his brother Pierre Arpels were great lovers of ballet and had a warm friendship with the legendary George Balanchine.
George Balanchine - (born: January 22, 1904, St. Petersburg, Russia - died April 30, 1983, New York, New York, USA) laid the foundation for American ballet and all modern neoclassical ballet art, author of about 300 ballets .
Claude Arpels is said to have approached Mr. Balanchine with the idea of a ballet based on jewels.
Another version says that:
Brilliant masterpiece George Balanchine's ballet Jewels was inspired by a chance visit to the legendary high jewelry house Van Cleef & Arpels on Fifth Avenue in New York.
This dazzling three-act ballet celebrates the beauty and charm of precious stones:
- V" Emeralds » Balanchine is reminiscent of the French romantic style;
- в "Rubies" it celebrates American exuberance and energy;
- and "Diamonds "It represents the magnificent grandeur of Imperial Russia.
Each of the three acts features music by different composers: “Emeralds” is written to the music of Gabriel Fauré, “Rubies” is to the music of Igor Stravinsky, and “Diamonds” is to the music of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.
Before the ballet premiere "Jewelry" In New York in 1967, dancer Suzanne Farrell and legendary choreographer George Balanchine went to the Van Cleef & Arpels boutique to meet the press.
In 2017, in honor of the 50th anniversary of the premiere of the ballet “Jewels,” in Moscow, in the gallery of the Van Cleef & Arpels boutique on Stoleshnikov Lane, museum jewelry of the House and modern brooches in the form of ballerinas were demonstrated.
See the gallery of wonderful images!
