ROBERTO AND HAROLDO BURLE MARX
Roberto Burle Marx (1909–1994), born in São Paolo, Brazil, was Brazil’s preeminent landscape designer, painter, botanist, conservationist, textile artist, and jeweler. Born in São Paulo, he trained at Rio de Janeiro’s National School of Fine Arts and traveled extensively in Europe, where exposure to botanical gardens and modernist design inspired his lifelong fascination with Brazil’s flora and fauna. In 1932, he designed his first private garden, and his breakthrough came in 1937 with the Ministry of Education roof garden, a project that cemented his reputation. Over a sixty-year career, he created nearly 2,000 gardens worldwide, including the iconic Copacabana promenade mosaics and projects in South America, the U.S., France, and South Africa, while discovering over fifty new plant species.
Between 1950 and 1965, Roberto designed innovative, modernist jewelry, celebrating Brazil’s semi-precious stones in bold, gold creations inspired by his landscapes. A polymath, he also worked in textiles, murals, theater, and music, integrating artistic disciplines into his vision. His estate, Sítio Roberto Burle Marx, remains a UNESCO World Heritage site, exemplifying his holistic approach to art, nature, and design. Globally celebrated, his legacy reshaped landscape architecture, conservation, and Brazilian jewelry design.
haroldo Burle Marx (1911-1991), born in São Paolo, Brazil, was an innovator in his fields of lapidary work and gemology and was also a masterful independent jeweler. In a TIME magazine article about the Burle Marx brothers in 1967, Haroldo was described as the manufacturer of “Brazil’s most exquisite jewelry.” He trained in gemology and lapidary work for four years, studying in Idar-Oberstein, the center of semi-precious stone cutting in Germany, and began taking jewelry seriously in the late 1940s. After a brief stint in philately, by 1954, he focused all his attention on the local gemstones he loved.
Haroldo’s fine jewels were sold through his fashionable boutique, H. Burle Marx & Cia. Ltda. Joalheiros e Lapidários, on Rua Rodolfo Dantas, 6B, Copacabana, in Rio de Janeiro. The firm was a jeweler of choice for movie stars, high-society figures, dignitaries, and royal families. In the 1980s, Haroldo's jewelry was sold at a small dedicated store in the famous Watergate Hotel in Washington, D.C.
Haroldo Burle Marx had a remarkable career of beautifully crafted modernist Brazilian jewelry.
