Beschreibung:

PROPERTY OF AMBASSADOR AND MRS EDWARD E. ELSON Jean Dunand Unique and important pair of wall-panels, designed for the smoking room, 'Pavillon d'une Ambassade Française', L'Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes, Paris 1925 Lacquered wood, silver leaf. Each: 139.7 x 63.8 cm (55 x 25 1/8 in.) Reverse of one panel incised with JEAN/DUNAND/LACQUEUR.
Provenance Smoking Room, Pavillon d'une Ambassade Française, Paris, 1925 Galerie du Luxembourg, Paris, 1978 Acquired directly from the above by the present owner Exhibited 'Pavillon d'une Ambassade Française', L'Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes, Paris, April-October, 1925 Literature 'Une Ambassade Française Organisée Par La Société Des Artistes Décorateurs', Exposition Internationale Des Arts Décoratifs Et Industriels Modernes, Éditions d'art Charles Moreau Paris, 1925, illustrated pl. VII and pl. VIII for a drawing Jean Dunand Jean Goulden exh. cat., Galerie du Luxembourg, Paris, 1973, illustrated pp. 16-17 Philippe Garner, ed., Encyclopedia of Decorative Arts, 1890-1940, Oxford, 1978, illustrated p. 65 Jacques de Vos, Marc-André Ruan and Jean-Pierre Tortil, Jean Lambert-Rucki 1888-1967, Paris, 1988, illustrated p. 46 Yvonne Brunhammer and Suzanne Tise, French Decorative Arts, The Société des Artistes Décorateurs 1900-1942, Paris, 1990, illustrated pp. 101-103 for an image and a drawing Félix Marcilhac, Jean Dunand His Life and Works, New York, 1991, illustrated pp. 69, 327, cat. nos. 1190, 1191, 1193 Évelyne Possémé, Le Mobilier Français, 1910-1930, Les Années 25, Paris, 1999, p. 148 for a drawing Charlotte Benton, Tim Benton and Ghislaine Wood, eds., Art Deco 1910-1939, exh. cat., Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 2004, illustrated p. 76, fig. 6.15 Catalogue Essay In 1925, the most prestigious event for the decorative arts, L'Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes, was held in Paris, located on the Esplanade des Invalides. For the exhibition Jean Dunand was appointed by Maurice Bukanowski, the President of the Société des Artistes Décorateurs, to produce an entire interior for one of the rooms within the French Embassy Pavilion. The present unique and important pair of wall-panels is from the smoking room interior that Jean Dunand created for the French Embassy Pavilion. Dunand applied black, red and silver lacquered interior panelling to the walls and lacquered furniture which sat beneath an ascending ziggurat ceiling. Henri Clouzot wrote in La Renaissance de l'Art in July of the same year about the Dunand interior that “although the whole is small in size, the overall impression was truly of exceptional quality, and everyone could be proud of this choice and congratulate lacquers from oriental artists and on having been able to apply that secret so felicitously to our modern Western civilisation”. The couturier Jacques Doucet wrote Jean Dunand after visiting the smoking room to express his tribute to the interior “I have always admired your work, but what I saw today showed complete mastery and confirmed in every way your greatness as an artist”. Read More