Cartier Chicago

Maison Cartier, in collaboration with Moinard Bétaille agency ask Mathilde Jonquière to create a 20 m2 mosaic fresco for the focus of the Cartier boutique in Chicago Oak. The mosaic fresco unfolds at the entrance to the Cartier boutique in tribute to the architectural beauty of the city, symbolised by its eight emblematic skyscrapers. Mathilde Jonquière creates a subtle interplay of frames of different colours, shapes and scales that come together, superimpose, contradict and combine to reveal the soul of the city of Chicago: the Lake Michigan, the sky and its architecture.

Mathilde Jonquière imagines horizontal grids for the lake as a sub-base, the buildings in vertical grids designed like Cartier jewellery, and in the background the sky composed of straight lines marking the perspective of the site. The beauty of the city’s light is symbolised by a sky of gold and shades of opal pink, whose vanishing point accentuates its spacious presence, reflected in the moving Michighan Lake.

This painting with its emerald green, white, gold and pink quartz lines in smalt, gloss, velvet and gem glass paste, porcelain stoneware, Tiffany glass and white and yellow gold tesserae reflects the incredible light of Chicago. Only the proud, majestic and mysterious panther in gold crosses the city and its buildings, revealing every element of its architecture. With this grandiose piece, Mathilde Jonquière reveals a delicacy that works wonderfully with the contrast of shapes, evoking emotion in the eye and the touch.