Jean Prouvé - Design New York Tuesday, December 13, 2016 | Phillips
  • Provenance

    Galerie Patrick Seguin, Paris

  • Literature

    Galerie Jousse Seguin and Galerie Enrico Navarra, Jean Prouvé, Paris, 1998, pp. 100-02, 167, 186
    Peter Sulzer, Jean Prouvé: Œuvre Complète/Complete Works, Volume 3: 1944-1954, Basel, 2005, pp. 265-66
    Galerie Patrick Seguin and Sonnabend Gallery, Jean Prouvé, Volume 2, Paris and New York, 2007, pp. 331, 350, 510

  • Artist Biography

    Jean Prouvé

    French • 1901 - 1984

    Jean Prouvé believed in design as a vehicle for improvement. His manufactory Les Ateliers Jean Prouvé, located in Nancy, France, produced furniture for schools, factories and municipal projects, both within France and in locations as far flung as the Congo. Though he designed for the masses, pieces such as his "Potence" lamps and "Standard" chairs are among the most iconic fixtures in sophisticated, high-design interiors today. Collectors connect with his utilitarian, austere designs that strip materials down to the bare minimum without compromising on proportion or style.

    Prouvé grew up in Nancy, France, the son of Victor Prouvé, an artist and co-founder of the École de Nancy, and Marie Duhamel, a pianist. He apprenticed to master blacksmiths in Paris and opened a small wrought iron forge in Nancy. However it was sheet steel that ultimately captured Prouvé's imagination, and he ingeniously adapted it to furniture, lighting and even pre-fabricated houses, often collaborating with other design luminaries of the period, such as Robert Mallet-Stevens, Le Corbusier and Charlotte Perriand.

    View More Works

69

Curved "Compas" desk

circa 1953
Painted bent sheet steel, painted tubular steel, oak-veneered wood, laminated wood.
28 5/8 x 77 1/8 x 37 3/8 in. (72.7 x 195.9 x 94.9 cm)
Manufactured by Les Ateliers Jean Prouvé, Nancy, for Galerie Steph Simon, Paris, France.

Estimate
$40,000 - 60,000 

Sold for $50,000

Contact Specialist
Cordelia Lembo
Specialist, Head of Sale
+1 212 940 1265

Design

New York Auction 13 December 2016