This brooch features two faces, a ghostly head with long golden tresses rising up out of the water appearing to a man with dark hair and a wide-eyed look of horror. The scene is said to have been inspired by a Japanese ghost story about a beautiful woman who lures young men to a watery grave. It was part of a group of jewelry created for the 1900 Exposition Universelle in Paris, where Henri Vever and Eugène Grasset were awarded the Grand Prix for their collaborative work. This fair was the birthplace of Art Nouveau, an art movement that produced jewelry—primarily made in France and Belgium— that was beautiful in design and execution and haunting in subject matter. The female figure was a popular theme among artists who participated in this artistic jewelry movement, and the women were often shown nude, highly feminized with swirling hair, and sometimes seemingly unconscious. Timed with shifting attitudes, the passive women in these jewels are a contrast to the independent “new” woman of the 20th century.

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