"Silver captures the moonlight's glimmer—like the lights of a Danish summer night. It can darken, and it can, when it dews, become like a will o' the wisp." That elegantly enticing description fits to perfection the sterling achievements of its revered author, Danish designer Georg Jensen, whose silver jewelry is now receiving haute museum recognition around the world.

Evidence of the enduring nature of his work can be found today not only in scores of museum collections—more than 200 to be exact—but more importantly on the current museum exhibition roster; most notably, Manhattan’s Bard Graduate Center is presenting "Georg Jensen Jewelry" from July 14 to October 16. It's the first comprehensive examination of the Danish silversmith’s jewelry and explores its evolution from the firm’s founding in 1904 up through the mid-1970s. More than 300 examples of jewelry, drawings and period photographs as well as archival materials are on display.

"With early Jensen silver jewelry there’s interplay of Realism and Impressionism, of light and shadow, so the designer sets up a dialogue," says David A. Taylor, who is responsible for the catalogue published jointly by Bard and Yale University Press. (The London- Silver Fund, which specializes in Jensen examples, collaborated with Bard on the show.)

While still in his late teens, Jensen brought remarkable credentials to jewelry design. He completed an apprenticeship with goldsmith A.R. Anderson as well as a stint in the sculpture studios at the Royal Danish Academy of Art. It was his training as a sculptor that infuses his work with a distinctive artistry. "His early work reveals a love of form and ornament combined with an attention to detail and craftsmanship that is extraordinary," says Taylor, who is an expert on material culture at the Library of Congress in Washington and also author of Georg Jensen Holloware: The Silver Fund Collection.

Botanical forms—berries, leaves, flowers and stems—were hallmarks of his early jewelry. Jensen rendered such motifs not with exactitude but rather with his own stylized representation. The creative Dane said it best: "I felt that in silver I could unite my skills as a sculptor and as a smith."

Jensen's artistry was so on target that as early as 1904 the Danish Museum of Decorative Art purchased his first jewelry examples. (At the time his jewelry was favored by members of the Danish court and wives of wealthy merchants.) But Jensen never operated in a vacuum; he was open to a range of stylistic influences beginning with skønvirke, a turn-of-the-century style that can be traced to the Danish Arts and Crafts movement. Other influences on Jensen were Art Nouveau, with its swirling form, and Jugendstil.

The earliest pieces from 1904 to 1920—especially those set with semi-precious stones like carnelian, moonstone, amber and amethyst, are most coveted. "Those with a rounded cabochon cut and bezel setting share an affinity with the U.S. and U.K. Arts and Crafts style," says Taylor. Plus, the hand hammering, which can be easily detected, shows the valued role of the craftsman.