By Hope Weil
Since 1837, Tiffany & Co. has been one of the world’s most elite jewelers. Female icons such as Audrey Hepburn, former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, fashion designer Diana Vreeland and socialite Bunny Mellon are among those who were frequently pictured wearing the exclusive brand.
Now, people all over the world are familiar with Tiffany and its iconic blue gift boxes. But the big question is: Do they know of Jean Schlumberger?
Schlumberger is a renowned French jewelry designer known for his work at Tiffany.
Schlumberger, who died at 80 in August 1987, created whimsical pieces of jeweled art that had vibrant color combinations, exquisite dimensionality and effortless movement.
He started as an independent designer for the first few years of his career and began creating pieces of jewelry for Tiffany in 1956. When he signed on, he was the first of four designers to put his name on his work for Tiffany’s.
“Tiffany adds luster to your name and gives you more exposure,” said Stanton Thomas, curator of collections and exhibits at the Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg.
On Dec. 15, the MFA unveiled two complementary exhibits: “Jewels of the Imagination: Radiant Masterworks” by Schlumberger from the Mellon Collection and “Drawn to Beauty: The Art and Atelier of Jean Schlumberger.”
“Jewels of the Imagination” highlights 135 pieces once owned by Mellon, donated to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts between 1985 and 2015.
The Mellon Collection is the largest collection of Schlumberger in the world and made its first appearance outside the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. The collection includes objects ranging from carefully crafted cigarette cases and obelisks to exquisite brooches, necklaces and bracelets.
While Mellon and Schlumberger did a great deal of business together throughout the years, they always maintained a very close-knit friendship.
“They traveled together, they visited each other’s homes, it was just a very warm, convivial relationship,” Thomas said. “She called him ‘Johnny,’ instead of Jean (which was his given name), and he called her ‘my darling.’”
As Thomas and Jorge Vidal, manager of special projects at the MFA, learned more about the initial Mellon Collection, they soon realized that no one had done much work on the life of Schlumberger, his friendships or his creative process.
After that, they decided there was more of a story to tell.
“We made the conscious decision to organize the second exhibition, ‘Drawn to Beauty,’ and then open them simultaneously so that the first one serves as a prelude as an introduction to the second one,” Thomas said. “It gives you a much better idea on who Jean Schlumberger was.”
“Drawn to Beauty” features 130 artifacts, ranging from sketches, photographs, objets d’art, personal items belonging to the artist and jewelry from private collections and the Tiffany archives.
“The Tiffany archives have been so gracious in lending us the famous Schlumberger pieces, such as the Diana Vreeland piece, the Slim Keith piece,” Vidal said. “Having looked at these pieces for over a year and now having them in our vaults, it’s just eye candy.”
The exhibits bring together magnificent pieces of jewelry and the narratives behind them.
“The idea that he created these objects, turned the sea creatures and the flowers and gave them an additional life through the jewels, and just thinking about his relationships with the jet set and just the artistry of it,” said Julie Wilson, the director of marketing and communications at the MFA.
“It turned from a jewelry show into something about the artistry behind the artist.”
The exhibit will run until March 31 at the Museum of Fine Arts, St, Petersburg, 255 Beach Drive N.E. For more information, call 727(896)-2667 or visit mfastpete.org.
