The Art Deco Style

THE ART DECO STYLE

Great Designers & Collectors

Alastair Duncan

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THE ART DECO STYLE Great Designers & Collectors Alastair Duncan

ACC ART BOOKS

THE ART DECO STYLE Great Designers & Collectors Alastair Duncan

ACC ART BOOKS

Commode by Iribe in ebonised wood with gilt-bronze mounts, c.1915 Sketch by Iribe of a commode, c.1915 Opposite: Commode in mahogany and shagreen, black marble top, 1912

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Commode by Iribe in ebonised wood with gilt-bronze mounts, c.1915 Sketch by Iribe of a commode, c.1915 Opposite: Commode in mahogany and shagreen, black marble top, 1912

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The preview of the Christie’s auction in Paris on 23 May 2013, showing a selection of the Rateau furnishings from the Palace

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The preview of the Christie’s auction in Paris on 23 May 2013, showing a selection of the Rateau furnishings from the Palace

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The catalogue cover of the American Designers’ Gallery exhibition staged in Manhattan, 1928 The double bed in turquoise, gold, and silver lacquered wood by Paul Poiret, which the Allvines acquired on a trip to Los Angeles in 1929 at a local store, named Hal Smith, which was licensed to manufacture and sell Poiret’s designs

Clockwise, from top: The tubular steel bed by Ruth Reeves The pedestal by Reeves The steel wall mirror by Donal Deskey The sketch, reproduced in the Christie’s auction catalogue, published in Every Week magazine on 22 December 1929, showing the tubular steel furniture in the Allvine home

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The catalogue cover of the American Designers’ Gallery exhibition staged in Manhattan, 1928 The double bed in turquoise, gold, and silver lacquered wood by Paul Poiret, which the Allvines acquired on a trip to Los Angeles in 1929 at a local store, named Hal Smith, which was licensed to manufacture and sell Poiret’s designs

Clockwise, from top: The tubular steel bed by Ruth Reeves The pedestal by Reeves The steel wall mirror by Donal Deskey The sketch, reproduced in the Christie’s auction catalogue, published in Every Week magazine on 22 December 1929, showing the tubular steel furniture in the Allvine home

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JEANNE-MARIE LANVIN “

Soon, her staff included embroiderers, seamstresses and tailors, as her business expanded from made-to-wear apparel to cosmetics, bridalwear, lingerie, sportswear, hosiery and furs.

”

B

orn in 1867 in Brittany, the eldest of 11 children, Jeanne-Marie Lanvin began her career in the fashion industry as an apprentice milliner at age 16, instructed at some early point by Suzanne Talbot. She later opened a small millinery workshop at 16 rue Boissy-d’Anglas in the 8th arrondissement. This was the start of what would become the longest-running fashion house business in the world. In 1893, Lanvin moved to larger premises at 22 rue Faubourg Saint-Honoré. She added dressmaking to her repertoire in 1909, in light of increasing demand from her clients that she open a young womenswear department. Lanvin then became a member of the Chambre Syndicale de la Couture, the prerequisite for entering the world of French haute couture. Her mother-anddaughter garments and waisted robes de style received glowing reviews in the press. Soon, her staff included embroiderers, seamstresses and tailors, as her business expanded from made-to-wear apparel to cosmetics, bridal-wear, lingerie, sportswear, hosiery and furs. Briefly married to an Italian nobleman, with whom she had a daughter, Marguerite di Pietro, Lanvin’s second husband was journalist Xavier Melet.

Jeanne Lanvin

In 1921, Lanvin entered into a business partnership with Armand-Albert Rateau. This was an indication of the bond at the time between the avant-garde in the Parisian fashion industry and that in modern interior design. The first project for the resulting subsidiary company, Lanvin Decoration, was to deck out the auditorium of the Théâtre Daunou, a small playhouse managed by the actress Jane Renouardt. The next year, Lanvin retained Rateau to redesign the interior of the hôtel particulier she had bought in 1920, at 16 rue Barbet-du-Jouy (a swank street on the Left Bank). A major commission for Rateau, this included refurbishing the three principal rooms: the bedroom, boudoir and bathroom. Clearly pleased with his skills as a designer-ensemblier, Lanvin made Rateau the manager of Lanvin Sport as well as enlisting him to decorate her boutiques and her country villa in Deauville. In 1965, after Lanvin’s residence was scheduled for demolition, her son-in-law, Prince Louis de Polignac, donated its contents to the city’s Musée des Arts Décoratifs, which reinstalled the Rateau interiors in their entirety with Lanvin blue silk wall coverings.

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JEANNE-MARIE LANVIN “

Soon, her staff included embroiderers, seamstresses and tailors, as her business expanded from made-to-wear apparel to cosmetics, bridalwear, lingerie, sportswear, hosiery and furs.

”

B

orn in 1867 in Brittany, the eldest of 11 children, Jeanne-Marie Lanvin began her career in the fashion industry as an apprentice milliner at age 16, instructed at some early point by Suzanne Talbot. She later opened a small millinery workshop at 16 rue Boissy-d’Anglas in the 8th arrondissement. This was the start of what would become the longest-running fashion house business in the world. In 1893, Lanvin moved to larger premises at 22 rue Faubourg Saint-Honoré. She added dressmaking to her repertoire in 1909, in light of increasing demand from her clients that she open a young womenswear department. Lanvin then became a member of the Chambre Syndicale de la Couture, the prerequisite for entering the world of French haute couture. Her mother-anddaughter garments and waisted robes de style received glowing reviews in the press. Soon, her staff included embroiderers, seamstresses and tailors, as her business expanded from made-to-wear apparel to cosmetics, bridal-wear, lingerie, sportswear, hosiery and furs. Briefly married to an Italian nobleman, with whom she had a daughter, Marguerite di Pietro, Lanvin’s second husband was journalist Xavier Melet.

Jeanne Lanvin

In 1921, Lanvin entered into a business partnership with Armand-Albert Rateau. This was an indication of the bond at the time between the avant-garde in the Parisian fashion industry and that in modern interior design. The first project for the resulting subsidiary company, Lanvin Decoration, was to deck out the auditorium of the Théâtre Daunou, a small playhouse managed by the actress Jane Renouardt. The next year, Lanvin retained Rateau to redesign the interior of the hôtel particulier she had bought in 1920, at 16 rue Barbet-du-Jouy (a swank street on the Left Bank). A major commission for Rateau, this included refurbishing the three principal rooms: the bedroom, boudoir and bathroom. Clearly pleased with his skills as a designer-ensemblier, Lanvin made Rateau the manager of Lanvin Sport as well as enlisting him to decorate her boutiques and her country villa in Deauville. In 1965, after Lanvin’s residence was scheduled for demolition, her son-in-law, Prince Louis de Polignac, donated its contents to the city’s Musée des Arts Décoratifs, which reinstalled the Rateau interiors in their entirety with Lanvin blue silk wall coverings.

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Clockwise from top left: Illustration in Harper’s Bazaar in 1931 of a woman wearing a Talbot hat The entrance to the rue de Lota apartment with flanking block screen panels by Gray, 1920s [Photo © National Museum of Ireland]

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Design by Suzanne Talbot, ‘Petit Matin’ in crepe, plate from Tres Parisien, 1927 Design by Suzanne Talbot, ‘Les Haies’ in velvet chiffon, plate from Tres Parisien, 1927

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Clockwise from top left: Illustration in Harper’s Bazaar in 1931 of a woman wearing a Talbot hat The entrance to the rue de Lota apartment with flanking block screen panels by Gray, 1920s [Photo © National Museum of Ireland]

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Design by Suzanne Talbot, ‘Petit Matin’ in crepe, plate from Tres Parisien, 1927 Design by Suzanne Talbot, ‘Les Haies’ in velvet chiffon, plate from Tres Parisien, 1927

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The catalogue cover of the second Lagerfeld Art Deco collection offered at Sotheby’s, Paris, 15 May 2003

Coiffeuse by Legrain in ebonised wood, sharkskin and mirrored glass, c.1920 Opposite: Floor lamp by the Maison Desny in nickel-plated metal, c.1930

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The catalogue cover of the second Lagerfeld Art Deco collection offered at Sotheby’s, Paris, 15 May 2003

Coiffeuse by Legrain in ebonised wood, sharkskin and mirrored glass, c.1920 Opposite: Floor lamp by the Maison Desny in nickel-plated metal, c.1930

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YVES SAINT LAURENT

“

What distinguished this from other collections was that their taste did not align exclusively with the art of that period – far from it.

”

B

orn in 1936 in Oran, French Algeria, Saint Laurent attended La Chambre Syndicale de la Couture in Paris in preparation for entering the fashion industry. In 1957, aged 21, he was hired by the couturier Charles Dior, whom he immediately succeeded on Dior’s premature death that year. Three years later he was conscripted into the French army during the Algerian war of Independence, following which he was released from the House of Dior, leading in 1961 to his partnership with Pierre Bergé to launch their own fashion house.

Saint Laurent‘s designs shifted from haute couture to prêt-à-porter. As the means to accommodate the changes in fashion that took place during the 1960s, he sought to make womenswear both comfortable and elegant. After a legendary career, Saint Laurent retired in 2002. He died of brain cancer in 2008. Thereafter, Bergé chose to dispose of the art collection they had formed together.

Among the earliest of the second generation of collectors to embrace the Art Deco style during its revival in the mid-to-late 1960s, Saint Laurent and Bergé, who had met in 1958, assembled a diverse collection of the inter-war’s iconic works for the decoration of their duplex residence at 55 rue du Babylone, in Paris’s 7th arrondissement. What distinguished this from other collections was that their taste did not align exclusively with the art of that period – far from it. They had accumulated a mélange, ranging from ancient Egyptian sculpture and Roman marbles, to works by Goya, Picasso, Warhol, Burne-Jones, Mondrian, Matisse, and many more, as well as furniture and objets d’art by Claude and Francois-Xavier Lalanne. All these were placed from room to room in a refreshingly congested milieu that offered a unique dialogue between styles and eras.

Yves Saint Laurent with mannequins

Concerning their Art Deco pieces, the style’s foremost exponents were well represented. The sale featured furnishings

by Frank, Rateau, Iribe, Brandt, Cheuret, Chareau, Ruhlmann, and Dunand. Furniture that could be traced to their original owners included: Eileen Gray’s Fauteuil aux Dragons; a sideboard that Gray had designed for Suzanne

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YVES SAINT LAURENT

“

What distinguished this from other collections was that their taste did not align exclusively with the art of that period – far from it.

”

B

orn in 1936 in Oran, French Algeria, Saint Laurent attended La Chambre Syndicale de la Couture in Paris in preparation for entering the fashion industry. In 1957, aged 21, he was hired by the couturier Charles Dior, whom he immediately succeeded on Dior’s premature death that year. Three years later he was conscripted into the French army during the Algerian war of Independence, following which he was released from the House of Dior, leading in 1961 to his partnership with Pierre Bergé to launch their own fashion house.

Saint Laurent‘s designs shifted from haute couture to prêt-à-porter. As the means to accommodate the changes in fashion that took place during the 1960s, he sought to make womenswear both comfortable and elegant. After a legendary career, Saint Laurent retired in 2002. He died of brain cancer in 2008. Thereafter, Bergé chose to dispose of the art collection they had formed together.

Among the earliest of the second generation of collectors to embrace the Art Deco style during its revival in the mid-to-late 1960s, Saint Laurent and Bergé, who had met in 1958, assembled a diverse collection of the inter-war’s iconic works for the decoration of their duplex residence at 55 rue du Babylone, in Paris’s 7th arrondissement. What distinguished this from other collections was that their taste did not align exclusively with the art of that period – far from it. They had accumulated a mélange, ranging from ancient Egyptian sculpture and Roman marbles, to works by Goya, Picasso, Warhol, Burne-Jones, Mondrian, Matisse, and many more, as well as furniture and objets d’art by Claude and Francois-Xavier Lalanne. All these were placed from room to room in a refreshingly congested milieu that offered a unique dialogue between styles and eras.

Yves Saint Laurent with mannequins

Concerning their Art Deco pieces, the style’s foremost exponents were well represented. The sale featured furnishings

by Frank, Rateau, Iribe, Brandt, Cheuret, Chareau, Ruhlmann, and Dunand. Furniture that could be traced to their original owners included: Eileen Gray’s Fauteuil aux Dragons; a sideboard that Gray had designed for Suzanne

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Tea service by Jean Puiforcat in silver and rosewood, 1937 Opposite: Clock by Jean Goulden in silvered bronze with enamelled detailing and a marble base, 1929

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Tea service by Jean Puiforcat in silver and rosewood, 1937 Opposite: Clock by Jean Goulden in silvered bronze with enamelled detailing and a marble base, 1929

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Nu Feminin, Dit De L’UAM by Jan and Joel Martel, a female nude sculpture in lakarmé (a technique whereby aluminium is made to resemble silver by advanced plating techniques), on a painted wood base, displayed at UAM’s exposition in Paris, 1931.

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Nu Feminin, Dit De L’UAM by Jan and Joel Martel, a female nude sculpture in lakarmé (a technique whereby aluminium is made to resemble silver by advanced plating techniques), on a painted wood base, displayed at UAM’s exposition in Paris, 1931.

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Richly illustrated with the work of legendary designers Eileen Gray, Paul Iribe, Antoine Bourdelle, Armand-Albert Rateau and Jean Dunand, among others, this grand opus assembles the people and the pieces at the heart of the Art Deco movement at each stage of its enduring appeal.

ISBN: 978-1-78884-225-9

9 781788 842259

59500 £75.00/$95.00

www.accartbooks.com

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