By Chloe Welling
How does one distill nearly two centuries of storied history into a single walkable exhibition? That is the ambitious challenge undertaken by CARTIER, the National Gallery of Victoria’s latest Winter Masterpieces exhibition.
Curated by the Victoria and Albert Museum in partnership with the NGV, the exhibition brings together nearly 400 breathtaking jewels, timepieces and decorative objects drawn from major international collections and the Cartier archives, many of which have never been seen before in Australia.
The exhibition design, conceived by Rotterdam based designer Sabine Marcelis in collaboration with Paul Cournet of multidisciplinary practice CLOUD, is integral to the experience. Moving through the exhibition, patrons experience a complete immersion into the world of gemstones. With each room swimming in a different jewel-toned hue, the space creates a distinct atmosphere that echoes the structure of a Cartier piece.
“We [took] the concept of a gemstone and expanded it to create a distinct spatial volume in each room,” Cournet explained.
That idea is immediately apparent upon entry. Visitors are met by panes of coloured glass, refracting the light around them and acting as a prelude for the luminescent hues radiating from the gems beyond.
The exhibition begins at the turn of the twentieth century, a period that would prove transformative for the Maison. Founded in 1847 by Louis-François Cartier, the exhibition chronicles the story of Cartier’s rise, tracing the artistic influences that have shaped the Maison’s evolution.
The second gallery, A World of Inspiration, places visitors in the cosmopolitan milieu of early twentieth-century Paris. As trade routes expanded, Cartier looked increasingly beyond Europe, drawing inspiration from the art, architecture and decorative traditions of ancient Egypt, India, Japan, China, Iran and the Islamic world, each of which profoundly shaped the Maison’s approach to colour and form.
Among the most striking pieces in this gallery is the ceremonial necklace commissioned by Maharaja Sir Bhupindra Singh. Featuring nearly 1,000 carats of jewels, Cartier was tasked with re-setting gemstones from the royal treasury of Patiala. Following India’s independence in 1947, however, the necklace disappeared, only to resurface decades later devoid of its largest gems. The piece displayed features replacement stones consisting of quartz, zirconia and synthetic rubies. A reminder that jewellery can lead a life as complex as those who once wore it.
Illustrations, design sketches and photographs from the Cartier archives provide a rare glimpse into the curiosity underpinning the Maison’s creative process. Designers were encouraged to cultivate taste through the study of decorative arts and architecture cultures from around the world; the exhibition conveying that Cartier’s success was never simply the work of one being, but a decades-long global feat.
From there, the exhibition turns its attention to the question at the heart of Cartier’s enduring appeal: what constitutes the Cartier style?
The answer is revealed in the culmination of pieces peppered throughout the gallery — some commissioned for wealthy clients, others experimental pieces born from travels — together revealing a design language that is immediately recognisable.
While the Maison’s aesthetic has evolved over decades, certain characteristics recur with remarkable consistency, most pointedly, a desire for innovation and a fine harmony between space and volume.
Particularly striking are the pieces that demonstrate Cartier’s signature willingness to look beyond conventional notions of preciousness. A necklace crafted from carved coral featuring uncut emeralds, diamonds and onyx, sits alongside an ebony lipstick case, embellished with a coral watchface.
One of the exhibition’s most compelling sections is devoted to Jeanne Toussaint, the designer who played a pivotal role in transforming Cartier’s Panthere motif into what it is today.
Nicknamed Petite Panthère by Louis Cartier himself, the exhibition tells how Toussaint was gifted a diamond and onyx vanity case adorned with a panther. So captivated was Toussaint by the animal, she channeled the cat as inspiration for a daring new direction for the Maison. Appointed Director of Haute Joaillerie in 1933 – an extraordinary feat as a woman of that time – the panther motif evolved under her leadership into the defining emblem of power and seduction it is today.
No Cartier retrospective would be complete without a moment for timepieces. Here, the exhibition charts the Maison’s role in reimagining the wristwatch as an object of design as much as one of engineering, and showcases the technical innovations that allowed experimental mechanical forms to emerge. Among them is the Crash, whose mashed silhouette remains one of the most recognisable and coveted watch designs ever produced.
A generous portion of the exhibition is dedicated to Cartier’s enmeshment with Hollywood. A looping video of Elizabeth Taylor poolside on vacation in France shows the Hollywood doyenne, fresh out of the pool, receiving a spectacular necklace featuring seven juicy rubies nestled within a sparkling geometric lattice of diamonds, alongside matching earrings. The video, jewels and the setting in which they were gifted capture the particular form of opulent glamour that Cartier has long represented.
Notably, the exhibition has little interest in the commercial pillars that underpin Cartier’s contemporary success. Visitors expecting an extensive exploration of the Love bracelet, Juste un Clou collection or other recognisable entry-point pieces will only find passing references. Instead, the exhibition remains focused on haute jewellery and the extraordinary history that has established the reputation Cartier has today. It’s a move that reflects Cartier not as a commercial brand, but as the cultural institution enmeshed within the global high society that it is.
Fittingly, the exhibition reaches its crescendo in a gallery devoted to tiaras, or the “pinnacle of the jeweller’s art.” Bathed in a deep crimson, the room features some of the most magnificent creations in the exhibition, including the Scroll tiara from 1902 worn by none other than Rhianna and the Sun Tiara of 1907, centred on a gargantuan 32-carat yellow diamond.
CARTIER is a ticketed event and will run between 12 June to 4 October 2026 at the National Gallery of Victoria.