ewellery historians and professionals, aficionados of gemstones and history enthusiasts were united in their sense of disbelief and dispossession on learning that several of the French Crown Jewels had been snatched, in broad daylight, from the Louvre museum on that infamous October day.
One of the jewels taken from the Apollo Gallery was Empress Eugénie’s bow-shaped diamond bodice brooch or stomacher: a piece familiar to every student of jewellery, who will have observed its delicate contours and admired the skill with which the diamond settings impart movement and suppleness to the piece.
An impressive 11 centimetres wide, the brooch was created for Empress Eugénie by François Kramer and comprises 2,634 diamonds set in a looped bow with fringed passementerie tassels. It is a perfect example of the dominant style of the late nineteenth century. The Parisian gouacheurs Hélène and Jeanne Karpov have taken it upon themselves to recreate this brooch, stone by stone, using only paint and brushes.
“There is something symbolic about this brooch, with all its splendour and grandeur,” Ida Faerber, director of the Faerber Collection, explains. “It represents the epitome of French jewellery-making. Beyond its beauty and craftsmanship, it is a piece of national history and therefore priceless. There are records for this imperial jewel from its making up to the present day, which is rare. It was originally designed as part of a larger parure, as the centrepiece for a belt, although Empress Eugénie preferred to wear just the bow, as a stomacher.” It was, in fact, one of her favourite pieces.
A treasure amassed since the time of François I, in 1887 the French Crown Jewels were dispersed in a public auction by order of the Third Republic: a regime that was both in need of funds and wished to erase the symbols of monarchy. As Ida Faerber reminds us, “the bow brooch was purchased at the sale by jeweller Emile Schlessinger on behalf of Caroline Astor, a wealthy American heiress.”
This was not the end of the brooch’s story. It changed hands again, sold first to the Duke of Westminster then, in the 1980s, to the jeweller Ralph Esmerian. It was then returned to the Louvre thanks to the Société des Amis du Louvre, who acquired the brooch through Christie’s New York on April 18, 2008 for $10.5 million. Says Ida Faerber: “ It’s rare that a jewel finds its way back home, so it’s wonderful that it was able to return to the Louvre. At the time of the sale, it was the most expensive jewel ever sold. Now, beyond the financial loss, it’s as though France has been robbed of a piece of its history. Jewellery is a means to understand an era, a social and cultural context, fashions, and this is why people were so upset. History is sacred. It links us to the past and leads us towards the future. This was more than just a robbery. They stole a piece of France’s grandeur.”
Working from a high definition photo, Hélène and Jeanne Karpov have succeeded in rendering the brooch in all its technical detail. The result is unbelievably realistic, as though the wave of a wand would suffice for the bow to detach itself from the paper and appear before us in three dimensions.
Europa Star Jewellery: What was your reaction on learning that the jewels, including Empress Eugénie’s bodice brooch by François Kramer, had been stolen from the Louvre?
Jeanne: We were both extremely shocked, in fact it took us a moment to realise what had happened. A robbery on this scale only ever happens in films. We knew all these pieces by heart. We studied them while training in jewellery design and have admired them countless times when visiting the Louvre. These jewels are symbolic of France’s history but also of the finest French craftsmanship. To think that all this was erased in just seven minutes is nothing short of tragic.
What does this brooch represent for you and has it inspired your work in the past?
Hélène: It is one of the most precious and, more to the point, famous French jewels, inestimable for its style alone. This is an astonishingly contemporary piece whose design still resonates today. The great jewellery houses continue to interpret elements such as ribbons, floral motifs and tassels in their creations. This brooch was actually a huge source of inspiration when I was at Van Cleef & Arpels’ design studio. In fact every high jewellery designer working on Place Vendôme will be familiar with these iconic pieces. They are part of the culture that underpins high jewellery, part of the foundations. It’s an incredible piece in terms of volume, equilibrium, lightness and movement, words that inform the work of every great jeweller, which is also why this brooch is such a timeless reference.
What makes it so special?
Jeanne: Originally, it was the central element of a belt that would have signalled the Empress’s status but wasn’t comfortable to wear, hence Empress Eugénie had it made into a bodice brooch. At 22 centimetres long it’s certainly an impressive piece, but it’s also remarkably delicate and feminine. The openworking is incredible in its evocation of lace.
Hélène: The asymmetrical design instils movement, repeated in the tassels, and this adds to the impression of lightness. For me, it wasn’t imagined as jewellery so much as a piece of precious fabric. As a belt, it had to mould to the body and be flexible. This is exactly the kind of thinking you could expect from designers on Place Vendôme today. In this respect, it was ahead of its time.
Beyond financial considerations, is this an irreplaceable piece and why is its disappearance such an enormous loss for historic French jewels?
Hélène: Every one of these stolen treasures is an irreplaceable testament to the history of France, the world history of jewellery and the virtuoso skill and ingenuity of the artisans of that period. All that has disappeared. They were on display first and foremost for the public to admire and marvel at, and this too has gone. We recently visited Dynastic Jewels at Hôtel de la Marine [in Paris] and despite having worked in high jewellery for two decades, we were amazed by the sight of such extraordinary pieces. Listening to what other visitors to the exhibition were saying confirms just how important art is, whether jewellery, painting or sculpture. At a time when world events leave many feeling full of anxiety, there is an even greater need for the beauty and fascination that art brings to our lives.
Jeanne: It was also one of the few examples of high jewellery the wider public could see. Most of the time, high jewellery is presented behind closed doors, inside private salons on Place Vendôme. Having such an important jewel on view all year round introduced the public to valuable skills that are still very much alive today, but few people are aware of their existence. This piece was one of French high jewellery’s greatest ambassadors. It could spark vocations, particularly among youth. We’re proof of that: we decided to study jewellery design after visiting a museum exhibition. Because of this, its disappearance constitutes an incalculable loss not only for France’s heritage, but also for training and inspiring future generations of jewellers, designers and gouacheurs. All this shows how vitally important it is to preserve traditional skills, which can vanish overnight.
Where did the idea come from, to recreate the brooch in gouache?
Hélène: It had been a project of ours for several months to draw one of the Crown Jewels as part of our core mission to pass on the skill of gouache jewellery painting. This typically French art, a symbol of Place Vendôme, faces an uncertain future for several reasons. By painting emblematic pieces, we aimed to take people behind the scenes of our profession and encourage others to take up this career. The idea came to us last summer and we thought we would have time to study each piece in detail. Sadly, that’s something we’ll never be able to do.
Jeanne: After what happened at the Louvre, recreating the stolen jewels in gouache seemed like the obvious thing to do. Only a few photos of these jewels remain so in a way, recreating them stone by stone was a means of taking back control. Our combined expertise in design and in gouache enabled us to execute this project to the highest standard. The objective wasn’t simply to paint an illustration but to recreate the brooch’s gouache: the original drawing. This implies considerable technical expertise in jewellery design, the history of jewellery and, of course, painting.
Did you refer to photographs or other documents?
Jeanne: We worked from a high definition photo provided by the Louvre. This was essential if we were to reproduce the brooch with its complex volumes as accurately as possible. It’s not unusual for us to work this way. Some jewellers ask us to create gouaches from photos of finished pieces. No detail is left to chance. We draw everything actual size, incorporating technical details, settings, clasps, hinges, colours, the stones’ facets, etc. This is why a high definition photo is so important: we need to be able to zoom in on every part of the jewel.
What would you say was the most difficult aspect of this project?
Hélène: The first difficulty was that we had only one photo from which to sketch the tracé, which is the preparatory drawing. Usually, we’re given several photographs from different angles, which makes it easier to “read” the jewel, to then reproduce each detail as faithfully as possible while elevating the whole. A gouache rendering follows certain codes and is intended to represent the jewel in its ideal state, hence each element must be as near to perfect as possible: the position of the piece, its symmetry, the least line and the slightest curve must be reworked to create the most elegant result possible. For example, on the photo the brooch’s tassels don’t hang “perfectly”, which we’ve corrected in our gouache.
Jeanne: For the actual gouache, another challenge was to reinterpret how light hits the piece. Creating a gouache isn’t about making a copy or a hyperrealistic reproduction. Rather, it’s a process of analysis and the application of precise codes. You have to position light and shadow in the right places to respect conventions and ensure that the volume [of the piece] is legible and, obviously, accurate. That the motifs are so intertwined posed an additional difficulty. It takes a practiced eye to distinguish the various elements one from the other.
Did you have to make choices?
Hélène: Many questions arose about how to best represent this jewel. Should we paint the tassels flat, as they are on the photo, or should we show the diamonds at a slight angle, for greater depth? Should we suggest movement for the tassels that would hint at the lightness of the piece, with the risk that the result wouldn’t appear entirely natural, or on the contrary should we bring out the jewel’s striking, rectilinear aspect, knowing this could produce a more rigid result? We also had to choose the most appropriate style of gouache. There’s more than one way to paint a diamond. Every House has its own style. It can be academic, almost strict, where each stone is completely identical, to demonstrate great technical mastery, or it can be much freer, less perfect, more alive. In this instance, the aim was to give the jewel the style of a modern gouache, with maximum character, vivacity and precision.
Did you make any discoveries?
Jeanne: During the tracé, I spotted a subtle detail, possibly an error. Look closely and you’ll see that the top of the two tassels hasn’t been mounted the same way round, which doesn’t add anything to the overall aesthetic. It’s something the vast majority of people probably wouldn’t notice but my question is, was this deliberate or not?
How long did this gouache take to complete?
Hélène: The tracé took several days. I hardly dare think how long it must have taken to imagine the piece from a blank page. It would have been a colossal undertaking. I have nothing but admiration for whoever came up with this fabulous jewel.
Jeanne: I don’t feel comfortable answering this question simply in terms of how long we worked on it. You cannot measure the time it takes to produce a gouache by counting the hours spent with a brush in your hand, without considering the experience you must first acquire in order to work with precision and skill. Gouache painting revolves around incredibly precise gestures repeated thousands of times, and a long period thinking about which techniques to employ. It’s the result of many years of learning, experimentation and research. So, creating this gouache took between several days and… twenty years of experience each.
What did you set out to achieve?
Jeanne: We wanted to bring this jewel back to life and restore it to its position as an icon of French high jewellery, so that it might continue to delight and inspire future generations in the same way it inspired us. We are proud to rank among the handful of French high jewellery gouache artists and be ambassadors for this art. Recreating this piece thanks to our expertise was an opportunity to defend both this historic jewel and the immensely precious aspect of France’s immaterial heritage that is gouache. This rare art is governed by strict rules of confidentiality which place it at risk in the face of digital renderings. Nor is gouache considered a métier d’art [281 specialised handcrafts defined by French law], which makes it even more fragile and, more importantly, deprives it of opportunities to be seen and admired. Gouache doesn’t feature at specialist fairs nor in competitions reserved for the métiers d’art, even though it is a métier d’art in its own right.
Hélène: We were pleased to see certain recent events open their doors to gouache. Museums are showing more and more jewellery gouaches, not least “Jewellery Designs – Secrets of Creation” at the Petit Palais, but they only present pre-1940s gouaches, which unfortunately could suggest that this is an art from the past. The question is, how can we interest young generations who know nothing about the world of high jewellery, and how can we show them that this is a living and constantly evolving art?
If there could be a sequel to this gouache, what would it be?
Hélène: We would love to continue this project by recreating, in gouache, the other pieces that have now been lost, as well as Empress Eugénie’s crown, which was extensively damaged. If we were given access to the archives, the iconographies and the collections, this could become a genuine means of bringing these priceless masterpieces back to life. We could even propose conversations between existing high jewellery pieces and contemporary gouaches: what better way to encourage future generations and preserve the art of the gouache? We are convinced that major museums could play a decisive role in perpetuating high jewellery gouache painting.
Hélène and Jeanne Karpov showcase the art of gouache on their Instagram, karpov.paris, where they post their original designs. For reasons of confidentiality, they cannot publish the gouaches they create for jewellery houses. They also propose online gouache jewellery painting courses at “The Art of the Gouache”.
