Scholarship Laureats - Nov 2023

After obtaining my degree in judicial law, I continued with studies in art history. This three-year degree reinforced my desire to work in the art market, an interest that was consolidated during an internship. It was here that I discovered the world of luxury jewelry.
I am currently doing two separate master’s degrees in Bordeaux: one in art history and the other in intellectual property law. These intersecting paths nourish my passion for the art market, combining artistic expertise and the legal understanding necessary for the world of jewelry and luxury jewelry.

My aim is to merge art history and law in order to have a full understanding of the luxury jewelry market. This approach results from my passion for the art of jewelry and my interest in the associated legal issues. By exploring artistic creativity and legal foundations, I hope to understand how these elements interconnect in the wonderful world of jewelry. This transversal approach offers a unique perspective in terms of deciphering how art and law converge in the contemporary art market, thereby providing a new and in-depth look at 20th-century jewelry.

My background is atypical. I began my degree in art history and archeology in Paris after studying music at the conservatoire in Mexico. My master’s degree in art history at the Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne was the natural continuation of this new path. As for the subject choice, this stems from the chance encounter with the objects, primarily four pendants housed at the Louvre, that are part of my corpus. It was love at first sight. Studying them was the obvious next step. However, placing the subject within a university context has proved to be a journey fraught with obstacles.

Mine is a systematic study of jewels that looks beyond their place of manufacture. While they derive from the evangelization of New Spain, they also arise from the first great period of globalization during the Modern era. Questioning these tiny gold pieces based on their macro and micro historical component is a new approach. Furthermore, establishing the biography of these objects allows us to nuance the hegemonic discourse according to which certain peoples dominate others. The Old and New Worlds interact. In today’s world, with the growth of nationalism, demonstrating the interpenetration of worlds is especially relevant.

I began with a history degree, as well as a postgrad in art history and archeology in Nice. After completing this course with a third degree from the Université d’Aix-Marseille, I chose to pursue a research master’s in this discipline in Rennes. The subject choice mainly reflects my penchant for the decorative arts, a passion that has evolved over my travels, when I had the opportunity to discover some fascinating productions. However, writing a dissertation specifically on the art medal is a combination of circumstances, which I ultimately owe in part to my research director.

Today, the art medal is a domain little studied in art history, and yet, it is a practice that deserves greater attention! The engraver I am working on, Ernest Paulin Tasset, mainly worked at a time when such medals were increasingly popular. Through my research, I hope to provide a better understanding of this little-known figure, whose contributions have nevertheless enabled many artists, like jewelers and goldsmiths, to appropriate the art of the medal and to vary their productions.

Before beginning this research master’s degree, I studied for three years in a literary preparatory class specializing in art history at the Lycée Michelet in Vanves. Seeking to move towards master’s research, I discovered the École Pratique des Hautes Études and met with Rossella Froissart, my dissertation director. This allowed me to reconnect with jewelry, a field in which I had hesitated to specialize in high school. As combining research and the luxury goods sector was one of my main aims, I can achieve this with the master’s degree today.

My dissertation is a monograph of designer, engraver, and jeweler Pierre-Georges Deraisme. What led me to work on this artist is a collection of seven-hundred-and-fifty drawings and some one hundred models kept at the Petit Palais. He has never been the subject of extensive research despite being one of the main engravers for jeweler René Lalique in the 1890s. Bringing his talent into the spotlight is the main objective of my dissertation and for this, I rely on the rich corpus of drawings that enable viewers to retrace the different stages of his thinking in terms of the jewelry-making process.

My university career started with a double degree in geography, urban planning, and archeology – art history at the Paris IV Sorbonne, which was quite far from the world of jewelry. However, an affinity with jewelry really developed in high school when I began making and selling it. More precisely, what led me to this master’s in art history at the EPHE and choice of research subject was the exhibition Shocking! The Surreal World of Elsa Schiaparelli at the Musée des Arts décoratifs in 2022, where I discovered a large collection of accessories and jewelry created for this milliner.

Researching contemporary jewelry in connection with Surrealist aesthetics is a way of approaching Surrealism through the prism of the applied arts, which has been little explored until now. It is also interesting to look at the rereadings and reinterpretations that have been made of the movement via the contemporary creations of certain jewelers, artists, and creators. Furthermore, this research topic is truly relevant in view of the centenary of the movement, honored in 2024 with the event: Surrealism. The Centenary Exhibition at the Centre Pompidou.

Since I was a child, I have always been drawn to jewelry, fashion, and all the various means or arts of adorning the body. I started out with a degree in art history at the Université de Toulouse and then wanted to continue with a master’s degree. When my director suggested that I focus my research on the Maison Rouvenat, I immediately fell in love with this fascinating subject matter.

The novel subject of the Maison Rouvenat calls for a monographic study. My research regularly takes me to Paris, where I visit the École's rich library and the old archives of the Musée des Arts Décoratifs. These are my main sources of period documents and original drawings of the Maison Rouvenat. My aim is to give an account of the history and production of this great nineteenth-century Parisian company, which, although its name was forgotten for over a hundred years, was one of the most renowned in the world at the time.

Before beginning a research master’s degree, I did two university courses. I obtained a degree in Spanish language, literature, and civilization at the Université Lumière Lyon 2, which allowed me to spend a year in Andalusia and develop a passion for art history. Back in France, I enrolled in a degree in art history and archeology, also at the Université Lyon 2, where I cultivated a growing interest in jewelry, and its symbolic importance in the portraits of the Modern era.

I aim to explore the issue of the cultural reception of Colombian emeralds through a comparative study, both in terms of the different gemstones present in the official portraits of the Habsburg family, and in both the East and West, particularly through the analysis of portraits of Ottoman sultans or Mughal emperors. The purpose of this last comparison is to understand whether the Colombian emerald was perceived as an oriental and orientalizing gem, and if not, to explore the place given to it in the visual culture of Western authorities from the 16th to the 17th century.

Après le lycée, je me suis intéressée aux langues et en particulier l’anglais. J’ai donc obtenu une licence LLCER que j’ai complétée par une année d’étude à l’étranger, aux Etats Unis. Cette expérience très enrichissante m’a permis de devenir bilingue et d’avoir un intérêt particulier pour les sujets internationaux. Cependant, j’ai toujours été fasciné par l’histoire de l’art et l’archéologie. J’ai donc obtenu cette licence avec une spécialisation en histoire de l’art antique. Notre cours sur la civilisation minoenne et en particulier leur orfèvrerie et joaillerie m’a fasciné, j’ai tout de suite su vouloir travailler dessus en master.

Mon sujet porte sur les échanges entre l’Orient et la civilisation Minoenne vue à travers la production minoenne de bijoux. Mon approche est pluridisciplinaire et se portera sur l’entièreté du bijou, son iconographie, ses matériaux, ses techniques d’orfèvrerie, pour arriver à une conclusion anthropologique d’un peuple : quelle est l’importance du bijou à la protohistoire égéenne ? Comment s’en sert-on pour tisser des liens avec l’autre ? L’étude des bijoux minoens a été faite dans le passé. Il me semble cependant que les chercheurs actuels s’appuient sur des hypothèses et constats faits il y a plus de cinquante ans. Mon travail cherche à apporter une vision neuve avec un point de vue plus global.

Avant d'intégrer le cursus du Diplôme Universitaire de Gemmologie à l'université Claude Bernard - Lyon 1 où j'ai réalisé un mémoire sur le spinelle "Japan flag" de Birmanie, j'ai finalisé un Diplôme National d'Arts Plastiques à l'École d'arts de Rueil-Malmaison. Après avoir travaillé plusieurs années dans un centre d'art contemporain spécialisé dans la céramique, je me suis réorientée vers des études de gemmologie auprès de l'Institut National de Gemmologie de Paris, où j'ai obtenu le diplôme de gemmologue et le brevet européen de la Federation of European Education in Gemmology (FEEG). Ce solide bagage m’a décidé à m’orienter vers un Master (DUGEM2) me permettant de mettre à profit mes compétences en gemmologie pour l’étude d’un objet précieux du patrimoine culturel sertis de nombreuses gemmes.

Je propose l’étude des gemmes de la croix de Castelnau-de-Montmirail (1341) grâce à diverses spectrométries portables. Si de nombreux inventaires décrivant ce reliquaire nous ont été transmis au cours des siècles, les pierres enchâssées n'ont jusqu'ici jamais encore été caractérisées scientifiquement. De plus, ce reliquaire a connu de nombreux ré-usages de pierres, plusieurs vols et des restaurations. Le sujet que je propose a donc pour but de déterminer la nature des pierres présentes aujourd'hui et d’identifier les gemmes d’origine. Cette croix d’exception est actuellement présentée dans l'exposition "Voyage dans le cristal" au musée de Cluny de Paris, dont l'École des Arts Joailliers est partenaire.

My academic career began with a double degree in law and art history-archeology at the Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne. Attracted by the associations between law and art history, I then pursued a double master’s in law-art history, offered in collaboration between the Sorbonne-Université and Panthéon-Assas. Coming from a family of jewelers, I grew up surrounded by the fascinating world of jewelry, thereby developing a real passion. My ambition is to become an auctioneer specializing in antique jewelry and objets de vertu, combining my legal and artistic skills to contribute to the promotion of this unique heritage.

I focus on the representation of jewelry in portraiture, from the beginning of the reign of Louis XIV to the end of Louis XV’s reign. My work will explore the evolving style of jewelry and its role in male and female portraiture, with a focus on court portraits. I am convinced that jewelry, often relegated to the background when analyzing a portrait, is highly important. It offers a unique insight into fashion and the jewelry market, revealing valuable facets of the society and culture of the time.

Before devoting a thesis to the history of jewelry, I first obtained my baccalaureate specializing in the plastic arts. I then moved towards ongoing education in art history and archeology from the Université Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne. My interest in jewelry stems from my love of the decorative arts. As early as high school, I was certain that I wanted to study a field that has a unique place in art history studies. My internships in cultural mediation and conservation allowed me to affirm my love of jewelry, and my desire to enter the world of research.

My subject concerns the jewelry production of Lucien Amédée Gaillard (1861-1942), a goldsmith who made a name for himself in the world of jewelry from 1900 onwards. Although the artist is admired at auction houses and was the subject of a monograph in Hélène Andrieux’s master’s thesis in 1992, he remains relatively little studied. While disqualifying the notion of influence, I intend to question the way in which Lucien Gaillard, “the most Japanese of French jewelers” (Evelyne Possémé), applied the beauty of the Japanese arts to his work, to best understand his unique conception of Japanism.