In the title of this sheet, there are already two fundamental elements of the personality of the architect Louis Majorelle, an artist with whom I am lost in love and you will be too if you ever get close to his "things."
A) The first “fundamental element” is the naturalistic one, and in the specific case of our fireplace, when we write that the fireplace was signed by our Louis, we are referring to the particular, sinuous and very elegant stems of the most various plants, or, if you like, from the wings of dragonflies.. Nature was his muse, it was nature that moved his pencil, and in the case of our fireplace (and in all the mantels he designed, except the “Oeil du boeuf” series of fireplaces, inspired specifically by the dormers of Paris roofs) Majorelle's signature lies in the very particular “curve” of the legs, a line never copied by any other designer as copying would have been too clear. No one before or after Louis ever made fireplace mantels with such “naturalistic” structures.
B) the second “key element” lies in the choice of a fantastic but almost completely unknown marble in Europe, SIVEC WHITE, a snow-white and crystalline marble, characteristics these determining its, almost magical, “luminosity.”
In those days it was used by very few sculptors because of the prohibitive cost of its transportation, since said marble was quarried in ...MACEDONIA!!! THOUSANDS OF KILOMETERS TRAVELED BY WAGONS DRAWN BY HULLS, in addition to a few thousand more miles by sea, I LET YOU IMAGINE THE COST OF THE TRANSPORT COST ALONE OF THE FOUR LARGE SLABS NECESSARY TO SO MUCH SCULPTURE..
But Majorelle was not interested in the pecuniary side, HE was interested in the end result, in carrying his project to the end!
HAVING FINISHED THE EXALTATION OF THIS CHARACTER, LET US TALK ABOUT THE SIGNIFICANCE, IN HIS SCULPTURE, OF THE THISTLE PLANT AND ITS FLOWER.
In Greco-Roman antiquity this plant and its flower was considered a mythological figure born from the union of Hermes with a Nymph.
Then, after the time of the Roman Empire, almost every European region will give this plant and its flower an amorous signification... THE THISTLE AND ITS FLOWER REPRESENT LOVE. I lean toward this interpretation, since True Love, while strong as the Thistle plant, also involves the thorns of its fascinating FLOWER.
LAST GENERAL NOTES ON OUR HERO: Our Louis not only designed fireplaces but also ranged over the whole artistic world of that time, from furniture of all kinds to curtain embrasses, from door handles to ceramic and glass vases, even to houses, so much so that two of his houses (one in Marrakech and one in Nancy) are now visited by tourists from all over the world..
THIS MANTEL CAME TO US IN PERFECT CONDITION AND WE HAVE ONLY SUBJECTED IT, IN ORDER TO PRESENT IT AT ITS BEST, TO AN APPROPRIATE AND SUPERFICIAL MAKE-UP. ITS BIRTH LIES BETWEEN THE LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH AND THE FIRST YEARS OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY (MORE BELLE EPOQUE THAN THIS..), IF I REALLY HAD TO UNDER THREAT OF EXPRESSING A PRECISE YEAR, I WOULD SAY THAT OUR THISTLE WAS BORN IN THE JUBILEE YEAR 1900 !!!
