Jean Prouvé - Design London Wednesday, November 13, 2024 | Phillips
  • Condition Report

  • Description

    View our Conditions of Sale.

  • Provenance

    Phillips, London, 'Design', 12 November 2020, lot 59
    Acquired from the above by the present owner

  • Literature

    Jean Prouvé: Constructeur, exh. cat., Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, 1990, p. 128
    Peter Sulzer, Jean Prouvé: Complete Works, Volume 2: 1934-1944, Basel, 2000, pp. 33, 294-95
    Laurence Allégret and Valerie Vaudou, Jean Prouvé et Paris, Paris 2001, p. 226
    Penelope Rowlands, Jean Prouvé, Vancouver, 2002, pp. 38-39
    Galerie Patrick Seguin, Jean Prouvé, Volume 1, Paris, 2007, pp. 109, 116-17, 184, 195, 201
    Galerie Patrick Seguin, Jean Prouvé, Volume 1, Paris, 2017, pp. 66-69, 98

  • 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

58

Two 'Tout bois' chairs

circa 1942
Cherry, beech-veneered plywood, oukoumé-veneered plywood.
Each: 81.5 x 40.5 x 48.5 cm (32 1/8 x 15 7/8 x 19 1/8 in.)
Manufactured by Les Établissements Vauconsant, Saint-Nicolas-de-Port, France, for Les Ateliers Jean Prouvé, Nancy, France.

Estimate
£8,000 - 12,000 

Place Advance Bid
Contact Specialist

Antonia King
Head of Sale, Design
+44 20 7901 7944
Antonia.King@phillips.com
 

Design

London Auction 13 November 2024