Two Watercolour Designs

Alexis Falize (1811 - 1898)

V&A (Victoria & Albert Museum)

Alexis Falize was one of the leading Parisian artist-goldsmiths of the third quarter of the19th century. In 1838 he set up as a manufacturing jeweller in Paris; his products eventually being sold through all the leading retail jewellers. Falize was a designer of remarkable fertility of invention, both aesthetically and technically, plundering historical sources and exploring novel manufacturing methods. These designs for a bracelet and earrings are in the Greek Revival style. Falize was one of the innovators of the style in the later 1840s; by the mid 1850s, the probable date for these drawings, it was becoming a Europe-wide craze. Falize was famous for his ability to show gold, diamonds and pearls convincingly in paint. These highly illusionistic drawings are full size and probably served as designs for manufacture as well as enticing models for customers.

• Medium: watercolour
• ArtFunded in: 2001
• Bequeathed by Katherine Purcell through The Art Fund

Provenance

Miss K Purcell

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