Jean Prouvé - FREESTYLE: Living with Art & Design, Property from a Private New York Collection New York Wednesday, June 5, 2024 | Phillips
  • Provenance

    Galerie Downtown, Paris
    Acquired from the above by the present owner

  • Literature

    Galerie Patrick Seguin, Jean Prouvé, Volume 2, Paris, 2007, p. 463
    Galerie Patrick Seguin, Jean Prouvé, Volume 1, Paris, 2017, pp. 366-67, 417

  • 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.

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Property from a Private New York Collection

128

Five-panel screen

circa 1955
Steel.
72 1/4 x 148 3/4 x 16 in. (183.5 x 377.8 x 40.6 cm)
Produced by Les Ateliers Jean Prouvé, France.

Estimate
$40,000 - 60,000 

Sold for $40,640

Contact Specialist

Patrizia Koenig
Specialist, Associate Vice President, Modern & Contemporary Art
+1 212 940 1279
pkoenig@phillips.com

Benjamin Green
Associate Specialist, Design
Head of Sale
+1 917 207 9090
bgreen@phillips.com

FREESTYLE: Living with Art & Design, Property from a Private New York Collection

New York Auction 5 June 2024