Category
Architecture and interior design
Children embracing
René Lalique
Circa 1930-1931
Moulded glass, lost wax technique
Property of the Musée des Arts et Métiers – Paris (on loan to the Lalique Museum)
Société Lalique gave this statue to the Musée des Arts et Métiers in 1944. It was most probably a feature of an ensemble for the dining room of Jeanne Paquin, a well-known couturière of the day.
An imposing piece – 41.5 cm high by 34.5 cm wide – visitors to the Lalique Museum can’t fail to spot it.
The lost wax technique was inspired by an ancient process used for casting bronze sculptures. It consists of moulding plaster around a wax sculpture that is then melted, leaving the negative thus created to receive the glass. The flowers on the cherubims’ heads reveal traces of the lost wax technique, left by the sculptor who produced the wax piece.
The statue had broken into three pieces, and was restored in 2001-2002. The restoration job provided the opportunity to examine the statue in greater detail.
By the way: the niche in which the Enfants Enlacés were displayed in Madame Paquin’s dining room is now in the Lalique Museum in Hakone, in Japan.
