Dunand’s father was a goldsmith, so he spend his childhood absorbing the many possibilities of decorative metal working. He began his artistic career at 14 years old studying at the Ecole des Arts Industriels de Geneve before moving to Paris in 1897. He remained in France for the rest of his life, becoming nationalised as a French citizen in 1922 , and even adopted ‘Jean’, the French version of his birth name ‘Jules-John’ in tribute to his adopted nation.

For his first three years in Paris, Dunand was apprenticed to the acclaimed sculptor, Jean-Auguste Dampt. In 1900 he first exhibited his own sculptures at the Paris Exposition Universelle, to much success. Four years later the Musee des Arts Decoratifs purchased one of his now iconic dinanderie vases. This was a great honour for a young living artist. It demonstrates the early recognition of his artistry that encapsulated the ethos of the Art Deco movement revolutionising the traditional distinction between ‘fine art’ and the decorative arts.

By 1924 he began creating jewellery. At first his smaller, wearable works were made just for his wife and family. However, they soon caught the attention of the Avant Gard dress designer, Elsa Schiaparelli and experimental milliners Jeanne Lanvin and Madam Agnes, who were then leading contemporary cutting edge fashion.

In 1912 Dunand met Seizo Sugawara, a renowned master of Japanese lacquer. Sugawara agreed to teach Dunand the intricacies of oriental lacquer work in exchange for lessons in the Belgium born process of Dinanterie. The exchange proved prolific: Dunand soon opened a workshop with a hundred skilled craftsmen specialising in lacquer work. Over the next two decades Dunand received several important commissions to decorate ocean liners, including the luxurious Le Normandie in 1935, with his sleek, geometric Art Deco style designs.

Today many of Dunand’s pieces are preserved as exemplars of the Art Deco style in museums, from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, to the Musee des Arts Decoratifs in his beloved Paris. Dunand’s jewellery and especially his iconic vanity cases, remain highly collectable on the secondary market.

Style/Major Collections

Dunand is best known for his mastery of the ancient oriental art of lacquering, and the modern European dinanderie (fine cast metal-work) technique. He seamlessly used these techniques to decorate a wide range of objects with bold Art Deco designs.

Laurence Mouillefarine, curator of the recent exhibition ‘Bijoux Art Deco et Avant Garde’, succinctly described Durand’s style as a: “mix of decorative art, Africanism and fashion”. The exhibition contained 20 of Durand’s jewellery pieces, which Mouillefarine explains were “highly innovative at the time”.

The ‘Giraffe’ necklace remains one of Durand’s most iconic designs. The simple torque necklace is made from a ‘oreum’ (a gold alloy), and decorated with bold red and black geometric shapes reminiscent of African tribal designs and characteristic of the new Cubist style.

Typical of most artist’s jewellery, Durand’s emphasis was foremost on design, not on showcasing the glitter of precious gems such as diamonds, rubies or sapphires. In fact his jewellery is devoid of any precious gems. Durand’s jewellery, from clasps and cuffs to his favourite torque style necklaces, is typically made from less expensive metals such as copper, steel, brass or oreum (gold alloy). Texture and colour, particularly bright reds contrasted dramatically beside black, is introduced from lacquer or inlaid mother of pearl, silver or his innovative eggshell mosaic.

Dunand first integrated his distinctive eggshell mosaic in a lacquered hat created for his friend and fashionable milliner, Madam Agnes. The effect of this material is both reminiscent of the grandeur of byzantine basilica mosaics and the vitality of African tribal ceremonial masks. The synthesis of old and new, tradition and radical experimentation is key to Dunand’s work that forged a new aesthetic style inspired by non-western decorative cultures.