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Collecting guide: 10 things to know about Jean Royère
The French designer turned his playful creations into a serious business, winning admirers who have ranged from Middle Eastern royalty to Jennifer Aniston. Illustrated with works offered at Christie’s
Left: Jean Royère (1902-1981), ‘Liane’ six-light sconce, special order, 1962. Original Rhodoid / painted metal shades. 168 x 234 x 18 cm / 66⅛ x 92⅛ x 7⅛ in. Sold for €1,570,000 in Design on 30 June 2020 at Christie’s in Paris; right: Jean Royère (1902-1981), ‘Forme Libre’ or ‘Cachalot’ Low Table, c. 1960. Oak, French walnut, benge, padauk, mahogany, sapele, patinated bronze. 10⅛ x 58¾ x 25 in (25.5 x 149 x 63.5 cm). Estimate: $250,000-350,000. Offered in Design on 11 December 2024 at Christie’s in New York
In 1947, Jean Royère (1902-1981) designed a sofa that embodied both his own emerging style and the joie de vivre of the post-war period — an elegantly rounded beast in soft white velvet that came to be known as the Ours polaire (Polar Bear).
The sofa and the armchairs that went with it have since become collector’s items: in 2023, a suite of Ours Polaire sofa and a pair of armchairs (below) sold for $3,420,000.
‘None of Royère’s designs are unique,’ says Pierre Martin-Vivier, Vice-President of Christie’s France and the author of Jean Royère (Norma, Paris, 2017). ‘What is difficult to find is pieces in such an exceptional state of conservation.’
1. Royère was self-taught
Royère had no formal design education. Born in 1902, he was the only son of a high-ranking civil servant from Brittany and his French wife, who had been raised in Vienna and was related to Charles Darwin and the founders of Wedgwood ceramics.
‘He grew up in a cultivated and cosmopolitan environment in the Champs-Elysées district of Paris ABSTRACT The article explores the crossroads of the trajectories of two professional women linked to the production of space: the Italian architect Lina Bo Bardi, who worked in Brazil, and the French designer Charlotte Perriand. The article begins by comparing two photographs and then investigates the performance of these two well-known professionals, their moments of exclusion and disqualification, as well as their successes, throughout their careers. As they both had long and diversified careers, we capture two moments when they produced their emblematic chairs, which they exhibited using their own bodies, albeit in a fairly anonymous way, as an ergonometric measure. Keywords: Lina Bo Bardi, Charlotte Perriand, Modernism, Domestic Space, Design. RESUMO O artigo investiga, a partir de duas fotografias, os pontos de encontro entre as trajetórias de duas profissionais ligadas à produção do espaço: a arquiteta italiana Lina Bo Bardi, que atuou no Brasil, e a designer francesa Charlotte Perriand. Tomando as imagens como mote, comparamos a atuação dessas duas profissionais de renome, os momentos de exclusão, desclassificacão e também de sucesso de suas carreiras. Como Lina e Charlotte tiveram trajetórias longas e diversificadas, flagramos apenas dois momentos, o da produção de cadeiras emblemáticas que elas exibiram usando, ainda que de modo pretensamente anônimo, seus corpos como medida ergonométrica. Palavras-chave: Lina Bo Bardi, Charlotte Perriand, Modernismo, Espaço Doméstico, Design. The present text emerges from a research project that itself traces back to one singular moment: the uncanny sensation caused on observing the similarity in body postures and relations between human body and objects - in this case, two chairs - in two photographs. Posed, studied and controlled, the images show Long before French couturier Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel (1883-1971) uttered the immortal words, “Before you leave the house, look in the mirror and take one thing off”, apropos interiors, ground-breaking style-maker and forward-thinking minimalist Eugenia Huici Arguedas de Errázuriz (1860-1951) said, “Throw out and keep throwing out. Elegance means elimination”. Indeed such a cutthroat attitude ushered in a trend for “la pauvreté de luxe”, or luxurious poverty, where at the beginning of the twentieth century, those in the know opted for an ascetic approach to interiors and fashion, an early take on “stealth wealth”, as it were, which, as Shelley Puhak, writing in The Atlantic,explains, was “reserved exclusively for those who could ‘afford’ to look poor by pretending that they simply couldn’t be bothered with fashion. But on closer inspection, there would be some small detail in her seemingly anonymous garment — a certain cut or fabric or label — that acted as a secret handshake.” Born in Bolivia in 1860, into a prominent family of Basque origin, Errázuriz had an extraordinary influence on art, liter Three Muses of Modernism
The Women Who defined an age
“Madame Errázuriz is now a very old woman …we sauntered through rooms furnished with the same stark taste that characterizes Picasso and Gertrude Stein. The floors are polished and bare, furniture is bold … Panelled walls have been painted a French grey. A bunch of tightly packed peonies in a glass goblet on a brass table should have been painted by Monet. The curtains were made of sprigged white muslin. Huge abstract paintings by Picasso hung on the walls … Mme Errazuriz’s lodge-house is small, simple and in no way spectacular. But for those who can recognize such things, the taste is the height of luxury. This woman’s surroundings have reflected the same uncompromising and sophisticated sparseness … that startled fin de siécle eyes and made Picasso realize he had found a kindred spirit.” — Cecil Beaton
Spotlight on a set of pieces by the designer Suzanne Belperron
Including two rings from the Robert Mallet-Stevens collection...
« Robert Mallet-Stevens, the most avant-garde of architects, could not have chosen another jewellery designer for his wife than Suzanne Belperron ».
Philippine Dupré la Tour
From architecture to avant-garde jewellery :
Modernity and simplicity of form
An avant-garde architect, Robert Mallet-Stevens (1886-1945) is one of the emblematic figures of twentieth-century architecture. Founding president of the Union des Artistes Modernes in 1929, he was a major player in the modern movement. Born into a family of artists, collectors and art lovers who were ahead of their time, elegance and refinement were the very foundations of his thinking.
A man of many talents, Robert Mallet-Stevens was in turn an architect, interior decorator, furniture designer, teacher, photographer in the air force during the First World War, and then film designer and decorator for some twenty films in the 1920s, including Marcel l'Herbier's famous film L'Inhumaine (1924). In 1925, the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs Industriels Modernes gave him international recognition. In collaboration with other artists of his generation, he designed the hall of a French Embassy and the Tourism Pavilion. For it was in architecture that he excelled, rejecting all imitations of the past, in a stripped-down style with pure geometric lines. Along with his contemporaries, Le Corbusier and Auguste Perret, Robert Mallet-Stevens rethought architecture, adapting it to the demands of his time. He was entrusted with the construction of several emblematic villas. The Villa Paul Poiret remained unfinished, followed by the Villa du Comte de Noailles in 1925 in Hyères, for which he brought in all the great names of his time: Eileen Gray, Francis Jourdain, Djo-Bourgeois, Charlotte Perriand, Sonia Delaunay, Pierre Chareau, Jean Prouvé... The rue Mallet-Stevens in Aut