Jean Royère - Design New York Tuesday, December 7, 2021 | Phillips
  • The Sculpture chair exquisitely embodies the sumptuous and refined realm of Jean Royère furnishings. Royère first designed the chair to much acclaim in 1955, providing it with a bolster seat and back that appear as two floating planes, inviting the sitter to be enveloped by its resplendence. The present example dates to after 1960 when the chair was subtly remodeled.

     

    Design drawing of the Shah of Iran's Golesthan Palace Cinema Hall, Tehran, circa 1956. Artwork: © 2021 Estate of Jean Royère / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris.
    Design drawing of the Shah of Iran's Golesthan Palace Cinema Hall, Tehran, circa 1956. Artwork: © 2021 Estate of Jean Royère / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris.

    The Sculpture chair quickly became one of Royère's most frequently used designs, exhibited at the Salon des Artistes Décorateurs in 1959 and used to furnish such interiors as the Shah of Iran's Golesthan Palace Cinema Hall, Tehran and the salon of the Institut de Recherche de la Sidérurgie (Iron and Steel Research Institute), Lorraine. Marrying sculptural form with supreme comfort, the present model exhibits the ingenuity of Royère at the acme of his celebrated career. 

    • Provenance

      Galerie Jacques Lacoste, Paris
      Acquired from the above by the present owner, 2010

    • Literature

      René Chavance, "Les aménagements nouveaux de Jean Royère et les réflexions qu'ils inspirent," Mobilier et Décoration, November 1956, p. 17
      Jean Royère, décorateur à Paris, exh. cat., Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, 1999, pp. 38, 68, 78, 135, 166
      Galerie Jacques Lacoste and Galerie Patrick Seguin, Jean Royère, Volume 1, Paris, 2012, pp. 50, 52, 54-55, 114, 176, 274-75
      Galerie Jacques Lacoste and Galerie Patrick Seguin, Jean Royère, Volume 2, Paris, 2012, pp. 19, 49, 270-71, 273
      Pierre-Emmanuel Martin-Vivier, Jean Royère, Paris, 2017, p. 271

    • 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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Property of an International Collector, Curated by Joseph Dirand

36

"Sculpture" armchair

circa 1960
Stained oak, fabric upholstery.
28 1/2 x 30 x 34 in. (72.4 x 76.2 x 86.4 cm)

Full Cataloguing

Estimate
$150,000 - 200,000 

Sold for $189,000

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DesignNewYork@phillips.com
212-940-1268

Design

New York Auction 7 December 2021