René Lalique na Colecção Calouste Gulbenkian

Exhibited at the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum’s Temporary Exhibitions Gallery (Lower Ground Floor), the exhibition was designed to keep the collection of jewels and silverware by René Lalique (Ay, France, 1860 - Paris, France, 1945) accessible to the public while the Lalilque Room was being renovated. The exhibition plan was initialled called Lalique - Ourives e Joalheiro (Lalique - Goldsmith and Jeweller), but was extended to include an area dedicated to “Book art of the time, restricted, as far as possible, to the artist’s dates of birth and death” (Note by the Museum Department, 6 Oct. 1988, Gulbenkian Archives, MCG 02999).

Due to the nature and sizes of the pieces chosen, the exhibition space was not altered, and the museography of the previous exhibitions was maintained: Porcelana Europeia: Reservas do Palácio Nacional da Ajuda (European Porcelain: Reserves of the National Palace of Ajuda) (18-11-1987 to 30-04-1988) and O Ouro e a História Pré-colombiana (Gold and Pre-Columbian History) (29-05-1988 to 17-07-1988). The blue colour of the walls, the display cases and their layout, and the type of lighting remained the same.

The exhibition began with an almost life-size photo of the entrance to Lalique’s home and workshop in Cours La Reine, Paris, where the worked glass and iron door, made by the artist, stood out. The wall opposite included some information about the artist’s life. The first room was dedicated exclusively to jewellery. Small and medium-sized display cases held ornamental pieces made of gold, silver and precious stones. These were accompanied by plan drawings exhibited along the walls. They were followed by decorative and utilitarian objects made of silver, glass and marble, shown in the other room. The exhibition ended with an important selection of books belonging to the museum collection that had been kept in storerooms until that time. These were identified by labels included in the display cases. In the case of Lalique’s pieces, the museum chose to make that type information available in a leaflet printed for the exhibition.

Over the three years that the exhibition was open to the public, it was visited by 164,049 people, an average of 4,557 per month.