Eileen Gray, Paris
Gladys Fabre, Paris, 1973
Christie's, Paris, "Arts Decoratifs du 20e siècle," May 20, 2003, lot 39
Private collection, France
Christie's, Paris, "Les Collections du Château de Gourdon: Chefs-d'œuvre du XXème siècle," March 29, 2011, lot 28
Artcurial, Paris, "Art Dèco," October 12, 2012, lot 94
Acquired from the above by the present owner
Centre Georges Pompidou, "Eileen Gray," Paris, February 20 - May 20, 2013
ILLUSTRATED
Eileen Gray, l'Éxposition, exh. cat., Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, 2013, p. 31
Cloé Pitiot, Eileen Gray sous la direction de Cloé Pitiot, exh. cat., Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, 2013, p. 170
L'objet D'Art, Paris, no. 487, February 2013, p. 29
Domus, Milan, no. 968, April 2013, p. 4
RELATED EXAMPLES
Peter Adam, Eileen Gray: Architect-Designer, London, 1987, pp. 332, 336-37
Francois Baudot, Eileen Gray, London, 1998, p. 26
Eileen Gray, An Architecture for all Senses, exh. cat., Deutsches Architektur-Museum, Frankfurt, 1996, pp. 128-29
Caroline Constant, Eileen Gray, London, 2000, p. 10
Peter Adam, Eileen Gray: Her Life and Work, Munich, 2008, p. 338
Irish • 1878 - 1976
One of the most important designers working in early twentieth-century Paris was in fact an unlikely expatriate: an extraordinary, aristocratic woman from provincial Ireland named Eileen Gray. After completing studies in painting at the Slade in London, Gray moved to Paris in 1906. There she partnered with the Japanese lacquer master Seizo Sugawara, applying the traditional technique to her original designs. She opened her gallery, Jean Désert, in 1922 and found steady work producing luxury objects for an elite clientele.
Soon, however, she branched out to larger projects. As an interior designer, she completed apartments for Juliette Lévy and her friend Jean Badovici. Encouraged by Badovici, she learned architectural drawing and designed the villa E-1027 in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, which was completed in 1929. Gray was largely forgotten until 1968, when the architectural historian Joseph Rykwert praised her in an article for Domus. Four years later her lacquer screen "Le Destin" achieved the top price in the historic auction of couturier Jacques Doucet's collection in Paris. Recognition — in the form of scholarship, exhibitions and collecting — has gained steady momentum ever since. As curator Jennifer Goff has written, "Collectors vie to own her furniture; historians compete to document her life."
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