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December 2003

Court Houses

Fabergé, Cartier and co, on display at the Hypo-Kunsthalle

“The artist is the creator of beautiful things,” “all art is quite useless” and “the only excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it intensely”: these are the words of Oscar Wilde, advocate of “art for art’s sake” and prolific author of splendid, though perhaps “useless” writings. Fortunately one must not agree with these maxims, which capture the essence of what is known as the Belle Epoque, to enjoy the fabulously flamboyant exhibition “Cartier and Fabergé: Rivals at the Czar’s Court” at the Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstiftung.

The exhibition gives visitors the opportunity to view a collection of authentic objets d’art from the Belle Epoque. These pieces—priceless objects handcrafted in the studios of Fabergé and Cartier to name but two—were once on display in the drawing rooms, salons and bedrooms of the most powerful European courts, such as the Imperial Court of Czar Alexander III of Russia. The last Fabergé exhibition of comparable range was held in 1985 at the Hypo-Kunsthalle and was organized by the noted Fabergés scholars Geza von Hapsburg and Alexander von Solodkoff. Geza von Hapsburg has returned to Munich to curate the present exhibition, which compares more than 800 pieces produced by various Russian imperial court jewelers between 1900 and 1917. This time around the works of Russian-born jeweler Carl Fabergé are juxtaposed with those of the great Parisian houses of Cartier, Boucheron and Chaumet, among others.

For more than 30 years, beginning in 1885, when he was appointed official supplier to the Czar, Carl Fabergé kept the Russian aristocracy and wealthy families across Europe supplied with dazzling jewelry and decorative objects designed to impress—and perhaps intimidate—friend and foe. In 1900, following his success at the Paris Exposition Universalee, Fabergé added to his two main studios in Russia an office in London in order to better serve his new clients in the west. The most significant of these customers was the British royal family, who were instrumental in spreading Fabergé’s name as the epitome of good taste and prestige.

Four years later, in 1904, Fabergé’s first serious rival appeared on the scene. The company Cartier acquired a number of hardstone carvings and enameled objects from Fabergé and his suppliers and from the Russian master himself, offering these as its own production in Paris. Not surprisingly there was an outcry from Russian jewelers when, four years later, the Parisian company set up business in Moscow—they even tried, unsuccessfully, to have the French merchandise confiscated and the firm’s representative expelled. Cartier had cleverly gained the support of influential members of the Russian imperial house who favored the Parisian master.

The exhibition at the Hypo-Kunsthalle shows up the similarities between many of the products created by Fabergé and Cartier, such as the famous jeweled flowers or sumptuous Easter eggs. A Cartier Easter egg from 1906 was clearly inspired by a similar creation displayed by Fabergé at the 1900 Exposition Universelle and shows how Cartier was intent on vying for the favor of the Russian imperial family. Not surprisingly Fabergé did not have a very high opinion of his primary competitors. In an interview from 1914, he explains, “Clearly, if you compare my things with those of such firms as Tiffany, Boucheron and Cartier, of course you will find that the value of theirs is greater than mine. But of course these people are merchants and not artist-jewelers. Expensive things interest me little if the value is merely in so many diamonds and pearls.” Indeed, whereas Cartier produced objects made almost exclusively of diamonds, platinum and precious stones, Fabergé, by contrast, often used semiprecious stones and added jewels only for decoration.

Fabergé’s criticism of his rivals neatly captures the essential difference between an artist and an art merchant, one caring more about the artistic value of a piece, the other more about the price. But it also underlines the difficulties that faced a man who was unwilling to sacrifice his artistic integrity to economic pragmatism. When the Romanov dynasty came to its sudden and violent end in 1917, deprived of the loyal patronage of Nicholas II, Fabergé’s artistic empire collapsed and he was forced to seek refuge in Switzerland. The more commercially minded, better connected Cartier dynasty, on the other hand, has survived to this day.

Preceding that decadent age of fine taste, the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche had pointed out that it is not the artist, but the rich and the idle who devise the goods to which the artist gives form. He was right when considering that only after all our more basic, urgent material needs have been satisfied can we attend to our need to create objects of consummate beauty. So while the political legacy of European monarchs has not always been positive, the cultural inheritance, as this exhibition shows, continues to give pleasure.

“Cartier and Fabergé: Rivals at the Czar’s Court” will be on view from 28 November, 2003, until 12 April, 2004, at the Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstiftung, located on Theatinerstrasse 8.

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