Le Toucan

The toucan — Ramphastos sulfuratus, in the naturalist’s ledger — was chosen for the fourth edition of the Volière collection not for its spectacle, but for its contradiction. The beak that seems too large for the body; the colours that seem too vivid for any living thing; the stillness that descends when it is at rest. It is a subject that demands restraint from the painter, and rewards it.

“Each enamel base is fired three times before the painter lifts her brush. After that, there are no corrections.”

Élise Marchand, who has directed the Métiers d’Art atelier since 2019, spent eleven weeks on the preliminary studies for Le Toucan before the enamel work began. The base — white grand feu enamel, applied in three successive firings — must reach a specific consistency before the painting commences. There is no second chance: the pigments, once fired into the surface at 780°C, are permanent.

The finished dial measures 29.5mm across. The painted surface — the toucan, the branch it rests on, the faint wash of tropical light behind it — occupies an area smaller than a postage stamp. Marchand works with a single sable brush of size 000, under an Optivisor at three times magnification, for eight to ten hours each day. Each piece takes approximately eighty hours of painting, over four weeks, to complete.

Detail · Le Toucan dial · 80 hours of hand-painted work on fired enamel.