You had to slow down for artist Robert Dallet: Hermes’s Pierre Alexis Dumas

They say a true artist is ahead of his time and Robert Dallet, a little-known naturalist artist, is testament to that. Dallet, who passed away in 2006, now has his works exhibited at the Hermes store in Mumbai, a part of a series. Hermès often worked with Dallet and ETPanache caught up with Hermes’s artistic director Pierre Alexis Dumas on his time interacting with Dallet.


Dans l'atelier de Robert Dallet. Hermes silk twill scarf. (Image: www.usa.hermes.com)

“I used to tell all artists to come to me with the first sketch of theirs to incorporate any changes. But that’s not how Robert worked,” he says. Giving an insight into how Dallet functioned, Dumas says, “Whenever he would come and show me his work, we would sit down and look at it in silence. He was that type of person for whom you had to slow down, else he would not speak to you. You had to look at his work first, and then speak .”