Feuille D'eau

In 1978, the Feuille d'Eau received the Lampe d'Or at the Salon International du Luminaire in Paris. Chrystiane Charles had watched it at length in her own garden: the way the surface of the plant catches the sun's light without absorbing it, and unfurls so delicately. From the geometric base rises a sheaf of long, finely striated leaves, opening at mid-height into a bouquet and falling back slightly in tapered points: a vegetal fountain suspended in bronze. The patina of the metal follows the vein of the leaf and runs the light over its gilded surface. At the top, the brass shade lays its horizontal over the vegetal surge.