Jaeger-LeCoultre Wants to Open an Art Gallery on Your Wrist
The Venice Film Festival is cool, but the Homo Faber exhibition is cooler. It takes place at exactly the same time each year on the Venetian Island of San Giorgio Maggiore, just a short, financially ruinous gondola ride away from the red carpet, and pulls together over 800 beautiful hand-crafted objects from artists around the world.
This year’s theme is ‘The Journey of Life’, with art direction from Queer director Luca Guadagnino and architect Nicolò Rosmarini, and it should come as no surprise that some historic fashion marque’s have set out their stall at the Fondazione Giorgio Cini. That includes the Swiss watch house Jaeger-LeCoultre, who have marked the occasion with a collection of one-of-a-kind timepieces.
The Reverso Tribute Enamel ‘Venice Series’ is made up of three new watches that draw inspiration from Claude Monet’s ‘Venice Series’, created late in the impressionist painter's career when he landed upon La Serenissima in 1908.
Using the Reverso’s case-back as a canvas, the brand's artisans have created miniature reproductions of Monet’s work with intricate paintwork, guillochage engraving and evocative enamel – fourteen layers of the stuff, to be exact, which helped to create the illusion of the original paintings' 'impasto' (AKA textured depth of colour).
The work on display? 'San Giorgio Maggiore at Dusk', 'The Grand Canal Venice' and 'The Doge’s Palace' – chosen from the 37 pieces Monet created during his time in the city.
Now for the bad news: there are only ten of each. And price is available upon a request, which is never a good sign. Your best bet? Pop your swimmers on and splish your way over to the exhibition, which runs until the end of the month.
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