Robert Goossens Water Lillies Crystal Chandelier for Cristóbal Balenciaga 1970s

Handmade Chandelier created by Robert Goossens in approximately 1970. This piece originated from the artist's private collection. It is crafted from hand-hammered ormolu and solid brass shaped into the form of Water Lily blooms, Lily Pads, twining vines, and embellished with faceted rock crystals. A scarcely seen and truly masterful work of art from the world-renown designer.

Robert Goossens began his career in Paris during the late 1940s, serving an apprenticeship as a jeweler, where he learned and honed his exceptional skill in the casting and working of metals into a perfect union with precious and semi-precious stones.

Throughout his formative years, Goossens devoted time to studying the sumptuous jewelry and metalwork designs of Byzantine and Renaissance artisans. His designs offer a modern reinterpretation of these historicist styles, blending them into a spirit of luxury and bohemian spirituality that would anticipate the zeitgeist.

His precocious talent and innate sense of originality brought his work to the attention of the leading fashion designers of the period, most notably Coco Chanel and Cristóbal Balenciaga. Chanel commissioned many personal pieces from Goossens from the 1950s, and right up until her death in 1971.

Similarly, Goossens' friendship and professional relationship with Balenciaga culminated in him commissioning this chandelier in 1970, for use in his art studio.

Provenance
Monsieur and Madame Robert Goossens, Paris