DeWitt finds inspiration from the Pre-Raphaelites in a brand new collection called a Golden Afternoon that is entirely dedicated to women.

Artistic inspirations In the mid-nineteenth century Victorian England, a group of English painters, poets and critics, known as the Pre-Raphaelites, formed a brotherhood celebrating woman, romanticism and symbolic nature. Dissatisfied with what was taught and exhibited at the Royal Academy, they wanted to return to a more direct and honest artistic expression, with abundant details, intense colours and complex compositions.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti was one of the driving forces behind this circle of artists and wished to reinforce the links between romantic poetry and art, another was the portrait photographer Julia Margaret Cameron, who was celebrated for her ability to emphasize the emotional dimension of her subjects.

Left: Julia Margaret Cameron (1815-79) Alethea (Alice Liddell) - 1872

Right: Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828 - 82) ’The Day Dream’ (1880)

The Golden Afternoon Collection With the Golden Afternoon collection, DeWitt has tried to poetically and artistically retrace the different stages in the life of a woman and her changing perceptions of the world around her. With great lightness and a touch of fantasy, the Golden Afternoon collection offers a set of mirrors to the minds and hearts of women.

The dial of the Golden Afternoon is a delicate mother-of-pearl garden with a colourful beds of flowers. The flowers are created in different dimensions and tonalities and are poetically dispatched across the dial. In the background, a mother-of-pearl sky with discrete puffy clouds mingles with a dozen water lily diamonds to form a painting in which reflection is reality. The slightly “out of focus” effect reminds us of Julia Margaret Cameron’s photographic style, exceptionally powerful and evocative.

The hours and minutes hands are refined little sculptures of angel wings, whereas the seconds hand, thin and elegant, is topped with a little flame. On the lower left part of the dial, a small DeWitt logo gently floats across the sky.

Discover more about DeWitt and this amazing collection in the upcoming issue of Europa Star (No.4/2011).

Source: DeWitt