GEORG JENSEN | PAIR OF MOONSTONE EARRINGS

Formerly in the collection of Cecilia Green (1931-2003), favourite model of the artist Sir William Russell Flint, R.A., P.R.W.S (1880-1969)

The present lot was designed by Nanna Ditzel in 1961, one of Denmark's most accomplished designers and the first woman to design for Georg Jensen, beginning a lifelong collaboration with the company in 1954. The winner of numerous awards and prizes, her innovative designs in both silver and gold infused organic forms with mid-century modernism, creating elegant, fluid pieces balanced by discreet simplicity. Her talent in design extended across a wide range of disciplines, focusing on jewellery and holloware for Jensen, and furniture, textiles and objects under her own name. In 1956, she and her husband and collaborator Jørgen were awarded the Lunning Prize (considered to be the highest award in Scandinavian Design), and she was made a Knight of Order of the Dannebrog in 1996. 

Cecilia Green was Flint's most celebrated model, appearing in many of his greatest works from 1953 when she was first introduced to the artist. Cecilia's parents were Russian Jews who fled Kiev shortly before the revolution and settled in the east end of London where she spent a childhood marred by the war and long periods of ill-health. Despite her childhood frailty she grew into a determined, confident and strikingly handsome young woman who wanted nothing more than to dance professionally. After a period at dance school she became a member of the London Festival Ballet and attended modelling classes at the London Camera Club. When a childhood ailment recurred and halted her dancing career she decided to become a professional artist's model. From the moment that Flint first saw Cecilia he knew that he had found the model that he had always wanted to paint, a woman who embodied his ideal of feminine beauty.