Jean Royère’s presentation at the Salon des artistes décorateurs entitled Coin de grenier, salon pour un chalet de montagne dans les Alpes / Attic nook, living room for a mountain chalet in the Alps. Artwork: © 2024 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris.

Jean Royère always considered the entirety of an interior when approaching his furniture designs. In an interview given to the “Revue de l’Ameublement” in December 1963, the designer recalled, “I’d always had a thing about interior design. So much so that as a child I didn’t want toys: I asked to be allowed to decorate a room in the attic in our country house.” It was at the Salon des Artistes Decorateurs in 1942 that Royère fulfilled his childhood wish and became a sensation with his presentation titled “Attic nook, living room for a mountain chalet in the Alps.” Images of the ensemble published at the time show a small rustic interior. A staircase made of fir slats and perforated with playing card motifs descends from one side. While on the left, a plaster fireplace descends from the ceiling encircled by a curved bench. In front of the fireplace sits an armchair covered in shaggy goatskin. The chair faces away from the viewer, towards the fireplace, but the distinctive silhouette of the now famous “Boule” or “Ours polaire” armchair is easy to recognize.

Jean Royère, drawing for the present model armchair, numbered in the archive XVI.13. Artwork: © 2024 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris.

This presentation was the first time the now famous form entered Royère’s repertoire and prefigures future “Ours polaire” armchairs which would progressively lose the raised seat back and become stouter and more rounded over time. The “Ours polaire” armchair demonstrates a radical departure from traditionalism by almost entirely eliminating the typical upholstered parts of an armchair. The arms gradually slope and curve into the seat back in order to avoid a single straight line or harsh seam. Despite the novelty of the form, Royère relied on traditional cabinetmaking techniques to create the inner frame for the armchair. For upholstery, he preferred to use thick velvets from Italy in deep colors. This tactile richness, combined with the almost animalistic form, earned the model the affectionate nickname “Ours polaire”—French for "Polar Bear." Royere’s Attic Nook presented a vision of a modern, cozy, and harmonious living space, with furniture that brilliantly integrated into the environment, setting the stage for Royère’s future designs and the powerful legacy of the “Ours polaire” armchair—at once a symbol of ultimate comfort and luxury.
- Provenance
  Private collection, France
  Galerie Chastel Marechal, Paris
  Phillips, New York, "Design," November 14, 2009, lot 66
  Acquired from the above by the present owner
- Literature
  "Les Ensembles Mobiliers," Images de France, Paris, July 1942, p. 8
  Jean Royère, décorateur à Paris, exh. cat., Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, 1999, pp. 28, 120
  Pierre-Emmanuel Martin-Vivier, Jean Royère, Paris, 2002, pp. 231, 284
  Galerie Jacques Lacoste and Galerie Patrick Seguin, Jean Royère, Volume 1, Paris, 2012, p. 75
  Galerie Jacques Lacoste and Galerie Patrick Seguin, Jean Royère, Volume 2, Paris, 2012, pp. 46, 274
  Pierre-Emmanuel Martin-Vivier, Jean Royère, Paris, 2017, pp. 238, 299
- Artist Biography
  Jean Royère
  French • 1902 - 1981
  Jean Royère took on the mantle of the great artistes décorateurs of 1940s France and ran with it into the second half of the twentieth century. Often perceived as outside of the modernist trajectory ascribed to twentieth-century design, Royère was nonetheless informed by and enormously influential to his peers. Having opened a store in Paris in 1943 before the war had ended, he was one of the first to promote a new way of life through interior decoration, and his lively approach found an international audience early on in his career.
  
  In addition to commissions in Europe and South America, Royère had a strong business in the Middle East where he famously designed homes for the Shah of Iran, King Farouk of Egypt and King Hussein of Jordan. The surrealist humor and artist's thoughtful restraint that he brought to his furniture designs continue to draw admiration to this day.
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