This week I've again returned to the art nouveau period to explore the life and work of Philippe Wolfers. What I love about his work is how delicate and intricate it looks, I could easily imagine myself wearing it.
Born the son of Louis Wolfers, the jeweller to the Belgian royal court as Wolfers Freres, Philippe trained in sculpture at Isidore de Rudder and at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts before going to work at his fathers company.
In 1892, with his brothers Max and Robert, he took over his fathers business making jewellery, gold smithing and vase making. His designs were influenced by nature and Japanese craftsmanship.
1889 saw him move away from his family business with some of his jeweller and set up at La Hulpe.
He was mainly concentrating on his jewellery now and in 1897 started to work with a new material, Ivory, which was beginning to be brought in from the Congo to Belgium.
He spend years to 1905 studying the nature around the grounds of La Hulpe and created a series of 109 unique jewels. These jewels where modern and drew inspiration from the nature making them at the cutting edge of art nouveau.
His business was doing well, so much so that in 1909 he commissioned Victor Horta, an art nouveau architect to build him soon headquarters in Brussels.
He began to make more sculptures and furniture, he experimented with geometrical and abstract designs.
In 1925 he travelled to Paris to exhibit along side the big names of the period such as George Fouquet at the Arts and Crafts Exhibition. This was the pinnacle of his career and he has went down in history as one of the most important artists of the entire Art Nouveau movement.
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