Eileen Gray Screen sells for €1.3m

PARAVENT 'BRIQUES', c. 1923-1925

I have long championed the Irish Designer Eileen Gray who greatly influenced 20th Century Design and Architecture at the creative nexus of the Modern Movement. Her iconic seaside villa E-1027 at Roquebrune Cap Martin obsessed the architect Le Corbusier who died of a heart attack swimming in the sea within sight of it. The furniture and fittings she designed for E-1027, an apartment on the Rue Lota in Paris and her own apartment on Rue Bonaparte are classics of 20th Century Design. Her contribution was largely unsung before her death in 1976 but now art connoisseurs are paying huge sums for original examples of her work. Last year a small armchair designed by her achieved the highest prices ever for a piece of 20th Century furniture and yesterday at Christie’s in Paris other pieces achieved truly remarkable prices.


Eileen Gray 1879 - 1976

Eileen Gray is regarded as one of the most important furniture designers and architects of the early 20th century and the most influential woman in those fields. Her work inspired both modernism and Art Deco. Her design style was as distinctive as her way of working, and Gray developed an opulent, luxuriant take on the geometric forms and industrially produced materials used by the International Style designers, such as Le Corbusier, Charlotte Perriand and Mies Van Der Rohe, who shared many of her ideals. Her voluptuous leather and tubular steel Bibendum Chair, and clinically chic E-1027 glass and tubular steel table are now as familiar as icons of the International Style as Le Corbusier and Perriands classic Grand Confort club chairs, yet for most of her career she was relegated to obscurity by the same proud singularity that makes her work so prized today. From her early lacquer work to design classics like the Bibendum chair and her architectural masterpiece, E-1027, Eileen Gray's work was as individual as it was exciting.


FAUTEUIL 'TRANSAT', c. 1926-1930

Eileen Gray was an extraordinary character, single-minded and individualistic, who managed to capture and express in her own way the prevailing spirit of the age in design through the first decades of the 20th century. She was celebrated in February 2009 during the auction of the Yves Saint Laurent-Pierre Bergé collections at the Grand Palais when her remarkable ‘Serpents’ chair, circa 1917-1919, originally from the collections of fashionable milliner Suzanne Talbot and the quintessence of her work in lacquer, achieved the record sum of €21 million.


Fauteuil aux Serpents


Table d'appoint pour E-1027

Eileen Gray arrived in Paris in 1902, studying at the Académie Colorassi and the Académie Julian before exploring the medium of lacquer after her curiosity was sparked by a visit to a small atelier in Soho. She met Japanese artist Seizo Sugarawa with whom she would work for a number of years. An enigmatic personality, as private as she was determined, she chose in the early 1920s to move away from the highly refined lacquer work of her early days, in order to focus on more functionalist designs in metal, glass and painted wood, inspired at first by the Modernist ideas of the Dutch De Stjil movement.


Eileen Gray in her rue de Bonaparte apartment with the Brick Screen in 1970

Her creativity and vision found expression in new forms, such as the ‘Brick’ screen – developed from the panels she used in the hallway of the apartment of Suzanne Talbot on Rue de Lota, circa 1922. The black-lacquered screen presented here was part of her personal furnishing and featured in her apartment on Rue Bonaparte. Other examples of her work include the floor light, the black and yellow base of which resembles a piece of Constructivist architecture, again made for her own use, or the ‘Transat’ armchair, circa 1925, in black lacquer with seat made from coated canvas, formerly the property of her friend and collaborator architect Jean Badovici, founder of the avant-garde magazine L’Architecture Vivante, 1923.


‘Aéroplane’ ceiling light

Her unique inspiration can be seen in her ‘Aéroplane’ ceiling light, circa 1925-28, constructed like an abstract sculpture from metal elements and two sheets of glass, one white, one blue. This specific example had belonged to Miss Gray. Another was commissioned by the eminent connoisseur and patron of Modernism, the Maharaja of Indore.

The Gourdon Collection of Art Nouveau, Art Deco and modernist design is being sold by Christie’s International at the Palais de Tokyo on March 29-31, 2011. The 500 works are owned by French collector Laurent Negro, who has been buying 20th-century design since the 1990s. Her 1920s black lacquer “Brick” screen sold at auction last night. The black lacquered screen panel, part of the late Co Wexford designer's personal furniture at her Paris apartment, was one of the first pieces to go under the hammer last night and sold for €1.3m at Christie's in Paris. The 1923-1925 'Brick' screen was among 15 Gray pieces that are expected to fetch up to €6m by the end of the auction tomorrow. An Bibendum Armchair - with a tubular chrome base and puffy seats - that is seen as a classic example of her radical foray into modernism - sold for €709,000, while a circa 1926-1929 standing table fetched €241,000.



Her works were included in the prestigious Gourdon Collection which went under the hammer at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris yesterday. The collection is regarded as one of the most important private collections of early 20th Century modern art. Eileen Gray was born in Brownswood, near Enniscorthy, Co Wexford in 1879, and died in Paris aged 99. The furniture from her Paris apartment now forms the centrepiece of the Eileen Gray exhibition at the National Museum, Collins Barracks in Dublin. It is good that this most famous Irish designer’s great talent is recognised in her own country and in the extraordinary prices her works achieve in the salerooms.


Maison en bord de mer E.1027 - Roquebrune Cap Martin

For more on E-1027, the iconic Moderne house designed by Eileen Gray at Roquebrune Cap Martin see;

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/09/e-1027-roquebrune-cap-martin.html

For the story of Eileen Gray’s armchair, Fauteuil aux Serpents, which achieved the highest price ever for a piece of 20th Century furniture see;

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2009/02/eileen-grays-armchair.html



FAUTEUIL 'BIBENDUM', c. 1926-1929

Eileen Gray Screen sells for €1.3m

PARAVENT 'BRIQUES', c. 1923-1925

I have long championed the Irish Designer Eileen Gray who greatly influenced 20th Century Design and Architecture at the creative nexus of the Modern Movement. Her iconic seaside villa E-1027 at Roquebrune Cap Martin obsessed the architect Le Corbusier who died of a heart attack swimming in the sea within sight of it. The furniture and fittings she designed for E-1027, an apartment on the Rue Lota in Paris and her own apartment on Rue Bonaparte are classics of 20th Century Design. Her contribution was largely unsung before her death in 1976 but now art connoisseurs are paying huge sums for original examples of her work. Last year a small armchair designed by her achieved the highest prices ever for a piece of 20th Century furniture and yesterday at Christie’s in Paris other pieces achieved truly remarkable prices.


Eileen Gray 1879 - 1976

Eileen Gray is regarded as one of the most important furniture designers and architects of the early 20th century and the most influential woman in those fields. Her work inspired both modernism and Art Deco. Her design style was as distinctive as her way of working, and Gray developed an opulent, luxuriant take on the geometric forms and industrially produced materials used by the International Style designers, such as Le Corbusier, Charlotte Perriand and Mies Van Der Rohe, who shared many of her ideals. Her voluptuous leather and tubular steel Bibendum Chair, and clinically chic E-1027 glass and tubular steel table are now as familiar as icons of the International Style as Le Corbusier and Perriands classic Grand Confort club chairs, yet for most of her career she was relegated to obscurity by the same proud singularity that makes her work so prized today. From her early lacquer work to design classics like the Bibendum chair and her architectural masterpiece, E-1027, Eileen Gray's work was as individual as it was exciting.


FAUTEUIL 'TRANSAT', c. 1926-1930

Eileen Gray was an extraordinary character, single-minded and individualistic, who managed to capture and express in her own way the prevailing spirit of the age in design through the first decades of the 20th century. She was celebrated in February 2009 during the auction of the Yves Saint Laurent-Pierre Bergé collections at the Grand Palais when her remarkable ‘Serpents’ chair, circa 1917-1919, originally from the collections of fashionable milliner Suzanne Talbot and the quintessence of her work in lacquer, achieved the record sum of €21 million.


Fauteuil aux Serpents


Table d'appoint pour E-1027

Eileen Gray arrived in Paris in 1902, studying at the Académie Colorassi and the Académie Julian before exploring the medium of lacquer after her curiosity was sparked by a visit to a small atelier in Soho. She met Japanese artist Seizo Sugarawa with whom she would work for a number of years. An enigmatic personality, as private as she was determined, she chose in the early 1920s to move away from the highly refined lacquer work of her early days, in order to focus on more functionalist designs in metal, glass and painted wood, inspired at first by the Modernist ideas of the Dutch De Stjil movement.


Eileen Gray in her rue de Bonaparte apartment with the Brick Screen in 1970

Her creativity and vision found expression in new forms, such as the ‘Brick’ screen – developed from the panels she used in the hallway of the apartment of Suzanne Talbot on Rue de Lota, circa 1922. The black-lacquered screen presented here was part of her personal furnishing and featured in her apartment on Rue Bonaparte. Other examples of her work include the floor light, the black and yellow base of which resembles a piece of Constructivist architecture, again made for her own use, or the ‘Transat’ armchair, circa 1925, in black lacquer with seat made from coated canvas, formerly the property of her friend and collaborator architect Jean Badovici, founder of the avant-garde magazine L’Architecture Vivante, 1923.


‘Aéroplane’ ceiling light

Her unique inspiration can be seen in her ‘Aéroplane’ ceiling light, circa 1925-28, constructed like an abstract sculpture from metal elements and two sheets of glass, one white, one blue. This specific example had belonged to Miss Gray. Another was commissioned by the eminent connoisseur and patron of Modernism, the Maharaja of Indore.

The Gourdon Collection of Art Nouveau, Art Deco and modernist design is being sold by Christie’s International at the Palais de Tokyo on March 29-31, 2011. The 500 works are owned by French collector Laurent Negro, who has been buying 20th-century design since the 1990s. Her 1920s black lacquer “Brick” screen sold at auction last night. The black lacquered screen panel, part of the late Co Wexford designer's personal furniture at her Paris apartment, was one of the first pieces to go under the hammer last night and sold for €1.3m at Christie's in Paris. The 1923-1925 'Brick' screen was among 15 Gray pieces that are expected to fetch up to €6m by the end of the auction tomorrow. An Bibendum Armchair - with a tubular chrome base and puffy seats - that is seen as a classic example of her radical foray into modernism - sold for €709,000, while a circa 1926-1929 standing table fetched €241,000.



Her works were included in the prestigious Gourdon Collection which went under the hammer at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris yesterday. The collection is regarded as one of the most important private collections of early 20th Century modern art. Eileen Gray was born in Brownswood, near Enniscorthy, Co Wexford in 1879, and died in Paris aged 99. The furniture from her Paris apartment now forms the centrepiece of the Eileen Gray exhibition at the National Museum, Collins Barracks in Dublin. It is good that this most famous Irish designer’s great talent is recognised in her own country and in the extraordinary prices her works achieve in the salerooms.


Maison en bord de mer E.1027 - Roquebrune Cap Martin

For more on E-1027, the iconic Moderne house designed by Eileen Gray at Roquebrune Cap Martin see;

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/09/e-1027-roquebrune-cap-martin.html

For the story of Eileen Gray’s armchair, Fauteuil aux Serpents, which achieved the highest price ever for a piece of 20th Century furniture see;

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2009/02/eileen-grays-armchair.html



FAUTEUIL 'BIBENDUM', c. 1926-1929

Eileen Gray’s Armchair

Fauteuil aux Serpents

The Celtic Sage has previously championed the Irish Designer Eileen Grey who designed many famous furniture pieces and the seminal Moderne building E-1027 at Roquebrune Cap Martin. She is now in the news because an armchair she designed sold by the estate of Yves Saint Laurent has sold at auction for almost €22m, the highest price ever paid for a piece of 20th Century furniture.

Wexford-born Eileen Gray was one of the most important architects and designers of the 20th century. She was an Irish aristocrat who inhabited a bohemian world and who was neglected for much of her career but whose work and achievements has been greatly appreciated with hindsight, particularly in Ireland where she was largely unknown in her lifetime as she mainly lived and worked in France. From her early laquer work to design classics like the Bibendum chair and her architectural masterpiece, E-1027, Eileen Gray's work was as individual as it was exciting. The Dutch magazine, Wendingen, declared in 1924: "Eileen Gray occupies the centre of the modern movement. In all her tendencies, visions and expressions she is modern."


Eileen Gray Snake Chair

After her father’s death in 1900, Gray moved to Paris with two friends from the Slade, Jessie Gavin and Kathleen Bruce, and continued her studies at the Académie Julian and the École Colarossi. For the next few years she shuttled between Paris and the family’s homes in London and Ireland, but moved back to London in 1905 when her mother became ill.

During her stay in London, Gray returned to the Slade but found drawing and painting less and less satisfying. One day she came across a lacquer repair shop run by a Mr Charles on Dean Street in Soho. Allured by the antique Chinese and Japanese lacquer screens in the shop, Eileen asked if she could learn the rudiments of lacquer working. By the time she returned to Paris in 1906, she was obsessed by the art of lacquer and, thanks to Mr Charles’ contacts, had an introduction to a young lacquer craftsman, Sugawara. He came from Jahoji, a village in northern Japan famous for its lacquer work and agreed to teach her. In 1907, Gray found a spacious first floor apartment at 21 rue Bonaparte where she could live and work and persuaded her mother to increase her allowance so that she could afford the rent. Three years later, Gray bought the apartment outright and thereafter it became her main home.


Le Corbusier, his wife Yvonne and Jean Badovici in E.1027 with one of Corbusier's murals in the background

Gray studied with Sugiwara for four years. Lacquer work was not only painstaking, but perilous. Like many people who come into close contact with it, she contracted a painful ‘lacquer disease’ on her hands. Slowly she refined her technique to create stark forms with simple geometric decorations. This simplicity was, however, as much a product of the complexity of the process as of Gray's aesthetic preferences. It was not until 1913 that she felt confident enough to exhibit her work by showing some decorative panels at the Salon des Artistes Décorateurs. They attracted the attention of the Duchess of Clermont-Tonnerre and the couturier Jacques Doucet, who bought one of her panels at the Salon and commissioned other pieces of lacquer work from Eileen for his Paris apartment.

The leather armchair standing at just 24 inches high and designed by Eileen Grey 90 years ago has been sold for almost €22m. It is a record for a piece of 20th century furniture and, in fetching six-and-a-half times its pre-auction estimate at Christie's in Paris, the chair proved a welcome tonic for a world art market worried about the economic climate.

"We're absolutely amazed by what's happened," Edward Dolman, Christie's managing director, said of the sale. "There are still a lot of extremely wealthy people out there." The unique piece, created by Wexford-born designer Eileen Gray between 1917 and 1919, was the highlight so far of a three-day sale of artworks collected by the late designer Yves Saint Laurent and his partner. The first two days have brought in more than €300m in sales, another world record.


Eileen Gray

Gray was first to become know for the lacquer technique she developed, a technique that combined the Asian lacquer tradition and its motifs with a contemporary modernist aesthetic. By 1912-1913 she was already becoming a name, and her luxurious screens, tables, and door panels sold well and were exhibited.

In the hour before the chair was sold, another piece by Ms Gray briefly held the title of the most-expensive piece of 20th century design sold at auction, when a New York dealer paid €4m for a sideboard dating from 1915 to 1917.

But there was no doubting the real star item on offer. Known as the Fauteuil aux Serpent or "snakes' armchair" because of the ornate sculptures on its sweeping armrests, the one-off rounded brown leather piece was designed by Ms Gray when she was in her early 30s and after she had moved from Enniscorthy to London to study art.

She became renowned for the luxurious finish of her lacquered furniture, but it was not until after her death in 1976 that she was truly recognised as one of the most important furniture designers and architects of the early 20th century. The buyer was the same dealer who had sold it to Mr Saint Laurent in the early '70s. Cheska Vallois raised his bid in increments of €500,000 to see off a phone rival with a bid of €21.9m, and was applauded by the 1,000 people present.

The highest amount ever paid for a piece of furniture was €27.5m - paid for an 18th century Badminton cabinet in 2004. "It is a fabulous price," Philippe Garner, Christie's international head of 20th Century Decorative Art and Design, said yesterday.

"The sale was an homage to the great personalities, designers, collectors and patrons who so marked their era in Paris in the 1920s and 1930s and to the pioneering vision of Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé as collectors."

Ms Gray flitted between London and Paris for much of her life and had a colourful personal life, taking both male and female lovers, but never marrying. She died at the age of 98.


Yves Saint Laurent

Yves Saint Laurent was hailed as a 20th century cultural icon who revolutionised the way women dressed. The reclusive Saint Laurent's couture creations won global fine art status and he was widely considered to be one of an elite club of designers including Christian Dior and Coco Chanel who made Paris the fashion capital of the world. From Princess Grace of Monaco to the actress Catherine Deneuve, Saint Laurent's creations adorned many famous women but he was also the first designer to make luxury labels accessible to a wider audience through innovative read-to-wear collections.

Saint Laurent and Mr Bergé began collecting art in the 1950s, at a time when the young designer was gaining a worldwide reputation with the fashion house Christian Dior. He needed art "like water to survive", in the words of one dealer, and acknowledged that his creations were inspired by his passion for paintings. Yves Saint Laurent died of cancer aged 71 in June last year.




Jardins Majorelle, Marrakech

Mr Bergé said the decision to sell the collection was taken because without him "it has lost the greater part of its significance". The proceeds are to help create a new foundation for Aids research. Yves St. Laurent and Pierre Bergé were wonderful patrons of the arts and in 1980 purchased the wonderful gardens and house laid out by the French Painter Jacques Majorelle in Marrakech. St Laurent, who was born and grew up in Algeria, had a particular affinity with the Maghreb. They had been visitors to and admirers of the Majorelle garden and they saved it from speculators who had devastated the inheritance of Marrakech’s gardens. Jacque Majorelle’s former house now contains a museum of Islamic art collected by Yves and his partner.

For more about Eileen Gray and the house she designed which became Le Corbusier’s obsession see;

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/09/e-1027-roquebrune-cap-martin.html



E-1027, Roquebrune Cap Martin

For more on Architecture and Design see ArchiBlogs in the Blog sidebar.

Eileen Gray’s Armchair

Fauteuil aux Serpents

The Celtic Sage has previously championed the Irish Designer Eileen Grey who designed many famous furniture pieces and the seminal Moderne building E-1027 at Roquebrune Cap Martin. She is now in the news because an armchair she designed sold by the estate of Yves Saint Laurent has sold at auction for almost €22m, the highest price ever paid for a piece of 20th Century furniture.

Wexford-born Eileen Gray was one of the most important architects and designers of the 20th century. She was an Irish aristocrat who inhabited a bohemian world and who was neglected for much of her career but whose work and achievements has been greatly appreciated with hindsight, particularly in Ireland where she was largely unknown in her lifetime as she mainly lived and worked in France. From her early laquer work to design classics like the Bibendum chair and her architectural masterpiece, E-1027, Eileen Gray's work was as individual as it was exciting. The Dutch magazine, Wendingen, declared in 1924: "Eileen Gray occupies the centre of the modern movement. In all her tendencies, visions and expressions she is modern."


Eileen Gray Snake Chair

After her father’s death in 1900, Gray moved to Paris with two friends from the Slade, Jessie Gavin and Kathleen Bruce, and continued her studies at the Académie Julian and the École Colarossi. For the next few years she shuttled between Paris and the family’s homes in London and Ireland, but moved back to London in 1905 when her mother became ill.

During her stay in London, Gray returned to the Slade but found drawing and painting less and less satisfying. One day she came across a lacquer repair shop run by a Mr Charles on Dean Street in Soho. Allured by the antique Chinese and Japanese lacquer screens in the shop, Eileen asked if she could learn the rudiments of lacquer working. By the time she returned to Paris in 1906, she was obsessed by the art of lacquer and, thanks to Mr Charles’ contacts, had an introduction to a young lacquer craftsman, Sugawara. He came from Jahoji, a village in northern Japan famous for its lacquer work and agreed to teach her. In 1907, Gray found a spacious first floor apartment at 21 rue Bonaparte where she could live and work and persuaded her mother to increase her allowance so that she could afford the rent. Three years later, Gray bought the apartment outright and thereafter it became her main home.


Le Corbusier, his wife Yvonne and Jean Badovici in E.1027 with one of Corbusier's murals in the background

Gray studied with Sugiwara for four years. Lacquer work was not only painstaking, but perilous. Like many people who come into close contact with it, she contracted a painful ‘lacquer disease’ on her hands. Slowly she refined her technique to create stark forms with simple geometric decorations. This simplicity was, however, as much a product of the complexity of the process as of Gray's aesthetic preferences. It was not until 1913 that she felt confident enough to exhibit her work by showing some decorative panels at the Salon des Artistes Décorateurs. They attracted the attention of the Duchess of Clermont-Tonnerre and the couturier Jacques Doucet, who bought one of her panels at the Salon and commissioned other pieces of lacquer work from Eileen for his Paris apartment.

The leather armchair standing at just 24 inches high and designed by Eileen Grey 90 years ago has been sold for almost €22m. It is a record for a piece of 20th century furniture and, in fetching six-and-a-half times its pre-auction estimate at Christie's in Paris, the chair proved a welcome tonic for a world art market worried about the economic climate.

"We're absolutely amazed by what's happened," Edward Dolman, Christie's managing director, said of the sale. "There are still a lot of extremely wealthy people out there." The unique piece, created by Wexford-born designer Eileen Gray between 1917 and 1919, was the highlight so far of a three-day sale of artworks collected by the late designer Yves Saint Laurent and his partner. The first two days have brought in more than €300m in sales, another world record.


Eileen Gray

Gray was first to become know for the lacquer technique she developed, a technique that combined the Asian lacquer tradition and its motifs with a contemporary modernist aesthetic. By 1912-1913 she was already becoming a name, and her luxurious screens, tables, and door panels sold well and were exhibited.

In the hour before the chair was sold, another piece by Ms Gray briefly held the title of the most-expensive piece of 20th century design sold at auction, when a New York dealer paid €4m for a sideboard dating from 1915 to 1917.

But there was no doubting the real star item on offer. Known as the Fauteuil aux Serpent or "snakes' armchair" because of the ornate sculptures on its sweeping armrests, the one-off rounded brown leather piece was designed by Ms Gray when she was in her early 30s and after she had moved from Enniscorthy to London to study art.

She became renowned for the luxurious finish of her lacquered furniture, but it was not until after her death in 1976 that she was truly recognised as one of the most important furniture designers and architects of the early 20th century. The buyer was the same dealer who had sold it to Mr Saint Laurent in the early '70s. Cheska Vallois raised his bid in increments of €500,000 to see off a phone rival with a bid of €21.9m, and was applauded by the 1,000 people present.

The highest amount ever paid for a piece of furniture was €27.5m - paid for an 18th century Badminton cabinet in 2004. "It is a fabulous price," Philippe Garner, Christie's international head of 20th Century Decorative Art and Design, said yesterday.

"The sale was an homage to the great personalities, designers, collectors and patrons who so marked their era in Paris in the 1920s and 1930s and to the pioneering vision of Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé as collectors."

Ms Gray flitted between London and Paris for much of her life and had a colourful personal life, taking both male and female lovers, but never marrying. She died at the age of 98.


Yves Saint Laurent

Yves Saint Laurent was hailed as a 20th century cultural icon who revolutionised the way women dressed. The reclusive Saint Laurent's couture creations won global fine art status and he was widely considered to be one of an elite club of designers including Christian Dior and Coco Chanel who made Paris the fashion capital of the world. From Princess Grace of Monaco to the actress Catherine Deneuve, Saint Laurent's creations adorned many famous women but he was also the first designer to make luxury labels accessible to a wider audience through innovative read-to-wear collections.

Saint Laurent and Mr Bergé began collecting art in the 1950s, at a time when the young designer was gaining a worldwide reputation with the fashion house Christian Dior. He needed art "like water to survive", in the words of one dealer, and acknowledged that his creations were inspired by his passion for paintings. Yves Saint Laurent died of cancer aged 71 in June last year.




Jardins Majorelle, Marrakech

Mr Bergé said the decision to sell the collection was taken because without him "it has lost the greater part of its significance". The proceeds are to help create a new foundation for Aids research. Yves St. Laurent and Pierre Bergé were wonderful patrons of the arts and in 1980 purchased the wonderful gardens and house laid out by the French Painter Jacques Majorelle in Marrakech. St Laurent, who was born and grew up in Algeria, had a particular affinity with the Maghreb. They had been visitors to and admirers of the Majorelle garden and they saved it from speculators who had devastated the inheritance of Marrakech’s gardens. Jacque Majorelle’s former house now contains a museum of Islamic art collected by Yves and his partner.

For more about Eileen Gray and the house she designed which became Le Corbusier’s obsession see;

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/09/e-1027-roquebrune-cap-martin.html



E-1027, Roquebrune Cap Martin

For more on Architecture and Design see ArchiBlogs in the Blog sidebar.

E-1027 Roquebrune Cap Martin

One of the most intriguing Irish designers was Eileen Gray (1878 – 1976), an Irish aristocrat who inhabited a bohemian world and who was neglected for much of her career but whose work and achievements has been greatly appreciated with hindsight, particularly in Ireland where she was largely unknown in her lifetime as she mainly lived and worked in France. Eileen Gray is regarded as one of the most important furniture designers and architects of the early 20th century and the most influential woman in those fields. Her work inspired both modernism and Art Deco. Her design style was as distinctive as her way of working, and Gray developed an opulent, luxuriant take on the geometric forms and industrially produced materials used by the International Style designers, such as Le Corbusier, Charlotte Perriand and Mies Van Der Rohe, who shared many of her ideals. Her voluptuous leather and tubular steel Bibendum Chair, and clinically chic E-1027 glass and tubular steel table are now as familiar as icons of the International Style as Le Corbusier and Perriands classic Grand Confort club chairs, yet for most of her career she was relegated to obscurity by the same proud singularity that makes her work so prized today. From her early laquer work to design classics like the Bibendum chair and her architectural masterpiece, E-1027, Eileen Gray's work was as individual as it was exciting. The Dutch magazine, Wendingen, declared in 1924: "Eileen Gray occupies the centre of the modern movement. In all her tendencies, visions and expressions she is modern."




E-1027


E-1027 Frontage

Le Corbusier, arguably the greatest architect of the 20th century, was obsessed and haunted by E-1027, the seaside villa Eileen Gray built at Roquebrune Cap Martin in 1929. Over the decades, he sought to possess her "maison en bord de mer" in a multitude of ways. It may have been the last thing he saw before dying of a heart attack while swimming off the rocks beneath E-1027 in 1965. After he died, the footpath serving the area was designated Promenade Le Corbusier. In time, as Gray's reputation faded, some would even credit him with the design of her villa.

In 1907 Gray - the only Irish person wholly immersed in the pioneering work of the modern movement - moved to Paris, taking an apartment at 21 rue Bonaparte, which she maintained until her death on October 31, 1976, at the age of 98. The furniture from her Paris apartment now forms the centrepiece of the Eileen Gray exhibition at the National Museum, Collins Barracks in Dublin.


Rue de Lota apartment designed by Eileen Gray with her Pirogue sofa

Eileen Gray was born Kathleen Eileen Moray Smith in Brownswood near Enniscorthy, County Wexford on August 9, 1878. The family changed their name to Gray in 1893, after her mother, Lady Eveleen Pounden, inherited a peerage from an uncle in Scotland and claimed her title, Baroness Gray. Interested in art and wishing to live beyond the boundaries of conventional expectations, Eileen left home for Paris in 1902. She had already attended art school in England, and in Paris she continued her education, developing her talents as a painter and ultimately as a great designer. Gray was first to become know for the lacquer technique she developed, a technique that combined the Asian lacquer tradition and its motifs with a contemporary modernist aesthetic. By 1912-1913 she was already becoming a name, and her luxurious screens, tables, and door panels sold well and were exhibited. Throughout this time she was also designing striking rugs decorated with geometric shapes and patterns. Like her early lacquer work, these rugs, and later her famous chairs - particularly the Transat chair, the non-conformist chair, the Lota sofa, and the Bibendum - secured Eileen Gray's place as one of the most influential designers of the 20th century.


Bibendum chair on the left of the living room


Nonconformist chair, designed for E-1027

In 1922 Gray opened her own shop, Jean Désert, where she exhibited her furniture and designs as well as those of her contemporaries. At around the same time she met Jean Badovici, a Romanian architect and editor of the influential journal "l'Architecture Vivante," with whom she formed a very close personal and professional relationship. Her friendship with Badovici was to dramatically affect the course her artistic practice was to take, for it was he who suggested to Gray that she try her hand at architecture, and it was for him that she built her first house and one of her most enduring achievements, the Villa E-1027. Later in her life she explained: "Badovici said to me: why don't you build? I laughed in his face. I had always loved architecture - more than anything - but I didn't think myself capable of it."

E-1027, First Floor Plan


Rug for E-1027

In 1925, the pair began to explore the area around Saint-Tropez, seeking an appropriate site on which to build a summer refuge for Badovici. She subsequently discovered an isolated plot - inaccessible by car, but within walking distance of both a railway station and a sandy beach - along a rocky stretch of coastline. Gray bought the site and spent three years in Roquebrune, taking prime responsibility for both design and construction, while Badovici visited frequently to assist in technical matters. The name of the villa, E-1027, is a cipher for the architects' intertwined initials: following the E, the numbers 10, 2 and 7 represent the alphabetical order of the letters J, B and G, respectively. Built between 1926 and 1929, E-1027 was a unique experiment in architecture and design. Eileen Gray combined built-in furniture with ingenious spatial planning to engage the user with the building and site, incorporating the sun and the sea into the very experience of the house.


Maison en bord de mer E.1027 - Roquebrune Cap Martin

Gray declared: "This house has been built for a person who likes work, sports and receiving friends." E-1027 looks much bigger than it is. It has two bedrooms, a maid's room, utility rooms and a large space, partitioned with screen furniture that could serve as a living room, dining area and cloakroom or guest room. The main living area overlooks Monte Carlo harbour and the bedrooms face the rising sun. Service spaces are isolated: the kitchen, adjoining an outdoor cooking space, is separate from the rest of the house. Gray felt that each room should remain independent of the others, arguing that "everyone, even in a house of restricted dimensions, must be able to remain free and independent. They must have the impression of being alone, and if desired, entirely alone." Each room has a balcony and access to the garden.


Fauteuil aux Serpents

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2009/02/eileen-grays-armchair.html

In the most intricately detailed portions of the house - the bathroom, stairway, and the passage linking the dining alcove and bedroom - Gray filled every surplus cubic metre with concealed storage compartments, each designed to accommodate a specific item. The villa provided what she called the "minimum of space, maximum of comfort."


Bedroom


Bedroom dressing table

Her Transat "deck chair" (inspired by transatlantic liners), tubular steel bedside table and Bibendum (Latin for "now is the time to drink" but named for its resemblence to the "Michelin Man", a motoring icon with a drink in one hand and a cigar in the other!) armchair - all designed for E-1027 - have become timeless items of furniture that are still manufactured. She produced a second furniture type for the house, which she termed "le style camping." These items are flexible, light and portable, capable of assuming different configurations to accommodate a range of activities. Cabin-like furniture, conceived as a series of extrusions from the wall that break down the boundaries between architecture and furnishings, contained pillows, mosquito netting, books, a reading light and tea things.

Gray admired Le Corbusier's architecture, even if she remained unconvinced by his polemical assertions. Responding to his well-known maxim, she concluded: "A house is not a machine to live in. It is the shell of man, his extension, his release, his emanation." She used Corbusian stencils to inscribe admonitions on the walls of E-1027 - "entrez lentement" (enter slowly) by the main entrance and "defence de rire" (no laughing) on the foyer partition.


Eileen Gray Side table


Eileen Gray Satellite Mirror

A friend of Badovici's, Le Corbusier visited E-1027 on numerous occasions and admired it very much, so much so that he was moved to add his own touch to the clean white villa, painting a series of murals on its walls between 1937-39. This intrusion onto her design infuriated Gray, who considered the murals outright vandalism. Whether he painted these murals out of admiration for her work or jealousy of her accomplishment, Le Corbusier became intricately tied with the future of the house. Failing to purchase it himself, he eventually bought a piece of properly just east of E-1027, where he built a small, rustic cabin, "Le Cabanon." Here he would go for work and quiet contemplation, taking daily swims on the beach outside the house. After he died in those very waters, the whole area was declared a "Site Moderne," or "Modern Site," and deemed an area of cultural and historical importance and international interest. Today E-1027 is recognized as the founding element of this site.


Le Corbusier mural at main entrance,1938-39

Jean Badovici lived in the house until his death in 1956. In 1960, fearful for the future of E-1027 and his murals, Corbusier persuaded Madame Marie-Louise Schelbert of Zurich to buy the villa. He took an active interest in preserving both the house and its contents, retaining Gray's furnishings and restoring some of his paintings in 1961. When Schelbert died in 1982, the villa was left to her doctor, Peter Kägi, who removed Gray's furniture to Switzerland and eventually sold it through Sotheby's in Monaco on October 13, 1991, for the equivalent of €390,000. The Pompidou Centre pre-empted the sale of several lots - a common practice in France when a state body wishes to buy a particular item at auction. Most of the 29 lots went to France and Germany. Kägi died a few years later, unfortunately before any of the restorations began. After his death the house remained empty and susceptible to vandals and squatters who incurred serious damage onto the already ailing edifice, leaving it in dangerously precarious shape.


Eileen Gray in her rue de Bonaparte apartment with a Block Screen, 1970

Today, after years of neglect and vandalism, the house is in a serious state of disrepair. Friends of E-1027 is cooperating closely with the French government and the township of Roquebrune-Cap Martin, who have recently purchased the villa in partnership with the Coastal Conservancy, on both the exterior and interior restoration of this important work of modern architecture. The first phase of the renovation is already underway, supported in part by funds raised by Friends of E-1027. Once the house is fully restored and refurbished with copies of its original furniture and decorations, it will be maintained as a museum with a study and exhibition center for contemporary design near the site.


E-1027 in 2001

There is another Irish connection with Roquebrune as the poet William Butler Yeats was buried there just after the outbreak f the Second World War. W.B. Yeats was born in Sandymount, Co. Dublin in 1865 and educated in London but he spent his childhood holidays in Sligo and developed a deep affinity for the area.

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2007/10/first-female-member-of-parliament.html

Yeats died in Menton, France in 1939 and was buried in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin after a private funeral but according to his wishes his body was moved after the war in 1948 to Drumcliffe, Co. Sligo. In his poem "Under Ben Bulben" Yeats outlined how and where he was to be buried and even included the epitaph he wanted inscribed on his gravestone:

Under bare Ben Bulben's head
In Drumcliff churchyard Yeats is laid.
An ancestor was rector there
Long years ago, a church stands near,
By the road an ancient cross.
No marble, no conventional phrase;
On limestone quarried near the spot
By his command these words are cut:
Cast a cold eye
On life, on death.
Horseman pass by.



Today Roquebrune Cap Martin is not just the retreat of the idle rich and their servants but is easily accessible by road and rail from Nice Airport where there are frequent budget flights by the likes of easyJet who we travelled with. By road head along the A8 from Nice (16km.) take exit Menton La Turbie. If you are coming from Menton take exit Monaco Roquebrune. By the cliff roads take Grande Corniche (D2564), Moyenne Corniche (RN7), Basse Corniche (RN98). But the easiest way is on SNCF from Nice on the costal railway which passes by Bono’s back garden as it goes through Eze-bord-de-Mer!




Roquebrune

Situated 2 kilometres from Menton and Monte Carlo, this seaside resort rises to 300m. altitude starting at the water's edge and going all the way up to its perched village. The luxury of the villas, some of which resemble palaces remind us that here, in Roquebrune, statesmen, royalty, writers, and artists all came looking for inspiration and rest: Winston Churchill, Coco Chanel, Sacha Guitry, Jacques Brel, Silvana Mangano et al. Today the atmosphere is more Eurotrash with Russian Oligarski and good time girls from Kiev and Wolverhampton on the make or as Somerset Maugham tellingly remarked about neighbouring Monte Carlo “A sunny place for shady people” !













Villa Torre Clementina

Cap-Martin, within the commune of Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, is a beautiful wooded peninsula on the Mediterranean, just below the perched Roquebrune village. The train station is down here, along with the beach, some campsites and shops. The peninsula itself is largely covered with very expensive walled estates, some dating back to the 19th century and the Belle Epoque. To inhale the athmoshere of that era head along the Avenue l'Imperatrice Eugenie or on the costal footpath to Monaco down below. The Sentier Littoral offers an invigorating two hour walk around the length of Cap Martin all the way to Menton. En route you will catch just the barest glimpse of the superb villas whose estates cover the main area of the Cap. Somewhere above is the ravishing Villa Torre Clementina restored by Frederick R. Koch, an American collector and philanthropist. Designed in 1904 by the architect Lucien Hesse for the writer Ernesta Stern (who is buried in Menton churchyard) this neo-Romanesque confection and superb gardens with pavilions and a pergola are on the French register of historic monuments.

See; Villa Torre Clementina

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2010/12/villa-torre-clementina-roquebrune-cap.html

Further along the path you come to the viewing gallery built onto the rocks at the end overlooking Monaco for the magnificent Villa Cyranos, the Residence de l'Imperatrice Eugenie.


Villa Cyranos


Imperatrice Eugenie

The Empress was the ravishing young aristocratic Spanish wife of the Emperor Louis Napoleon and she was Empress of France from 1853 – 1870 when Louis Napoleon was deposed and took refuge in England as a result of France’s defeat in the Franco-Prussian War. He died there in 1873. His son, also Louis, is commemorated by the pub “The Prince Imperial” in Chislehurst in Kent where they lived in exile, their mansion in exile is now the rather spendid clubhouse of the local golf club. He was a cavalry officer in the British Army and was rumored to have been friendly with Princess Beatrice, youngest daughter of Queen Victoria, and there was much speculation of a marriage between them. That did not have a chance to occur as the Prince Imperial was killed when fighting for the British in South Africa in the Zulu Wars on June 1, 1879. Beatrice sent a beautiful wreath for his grave at Farnborough, which fueled the speculation that she had been hoping for a match. She went on to marry Prince Henry of Battenberg in 1885 who coincidentally also died in Africa. Ten years into their marriage, on 20 January 1896, Prince Henry died of malaria while fighting in the Anglo-Ashanti War in what was the Gold Coast, now modern Ghana. Her daughter married the King of Spain and is Juan Carlos's grandmother. The Empress Eugenie returned in time to France where she lived in some magnificence to the ripe old age of 95, a testament to the clement marine climate of Roquebrune Cap Martin. She is buried beside the Emperor and the Prince Imperial in a specially constructed crypt at the Monastery of St. Michael in Farnborough, England.


Roquebrune village



Today Roquebrune Cap Martin is still a beautiful place which reposes gracefully on the Riviera and in W.B. Yeats and Eileen Gray’s remarkable E-1027 it has two significant Irish connections.

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