Georges Braque, pioneer of Cubism and one of the century’s most celebrated artists, chose to dedicate the last years of his life to designing jewelry. His initiation into this medium was pioneered by his design for a cameo ring for his wife’s birthday, which featured the head of Hécate, a miniature version of his painting 'Tête Grecque' of around 1957. He was subsequently introduced to the lapidary and jeweler Héger de Löwenfeld and together they entered such a close relationship that Braque referred Löwenfeld as “the extension of my hands”.

The Classical personality of this important and highly personal design, with strong reference to allegory and the Antique, reveals parallels to the sinuous bronze lamps, tables and chairs created around the same period by Diego Giacometti, or the films of Jean Cocteau, most specifically Orphée (1950), or the literature of the post-war Existentialists, all of which have intellectual origins that trace direct lineage to the Parisian Surrealists of the early 1930s.

According to the Greek myth, Procris was tested for her fidelity by her husband Cephalus who tempted her with jewels. At first she resisted but later succumbed, at which point Cephalus revealed himself and banished her.

In all, Braque designed over 100 items of gold jewelry for Löwenfeld to create, and yet what is today largely forgotten is that these works were exhibited to great acclaim at 34 locations round the world between 1963 and 1971, and visited by just under a million people. Furthermore, by way of recognition Heger de Löwenfeld was made baron by the French government.