Jean Dunand (1877–1942) was a Swiss and French painter, sculptor, metal craftsman and interior designer during the
Art Deco
Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...
period. He was particularly known for his lacquered screens and other art objects.
Biography
Jules-John Dunand was born in
Lancy
Lancy is a municipality of the Canton of Geneva, Switzerland.
History
Lancy is first mentioned in 1097 as ''Lanciaco'' meaning "fearless".
Geography
Lancy has an area, , of . Of this area, or 5.2% is used for agricultural purposes, while or ...
, Switzerland, on 20 May 1877. He later adopted the French first name of Jean, and became a naturalized French citizen in 1922. At the age of fourteen, he began studying sculpture at the Geneva School of Industrial Arts, where he won several prizes and received his diploma. In 1897 he moved to Paris and begn to work as a sculptor and a copper craftsman. He participated in the 1904 Salon of the National Society of Fine Arts, and in 1905 he was selected a member, after completing an interior for the Countess de Bearn. He worked with a very wide range of materials, including steel, copper, pewter and silver, which he worked with hammer and glided, and encrusted with gold or
mother-of-pearl
Nacre ( , ), also known as mother of pearl, is an organicinorganic composite material produced by some molluscs as an inner shell layer; it is also the material of which pearls are composed. It is strong, resilient, and iridescent.
Nacre is ...
, and then often decorated with enamels and patinas. His works included vases, plates, boxes, and jewelry.
In about 1912, he began working with Seizo Sugawara, a Japanese
lacquer
Lacquer is a type of hard and usually shiny coating or finish applied to materials such as wood or metal. It is most often made from resin extracted from trees and waxes and has been in use since antiquity.
Asian lacquerware, which may be ca ...
painter who had emigrated to France, and began to use that ancient and almost forgotten technique in his own work, making large decorative panels and screens. He also sometimes decorated pieces of furniture by other designers, including
Jacques-Emile Ruhlmann and
Pierre Legrain. His themes were greatly varied, from floral and animal designs, to a kind of neo-cubism, to oriental designs.
For the 1925 Paris Exposition of Decorative Arts, he worked on one of best-known exhibits, a proposal for the interior of an Art Deco French Embassy, creating a smoking room entirely decorated in lacquered panels. He also contributed to Ruhlmann's ''House of a Collector''. He contributed to the interiors of many apartments, and of ocean liners; he decorated the smoking room of the ocean liner .
His works can be found in museums in Amsterdam, Denver, Detroit, Geneva, Lausanne, Le Havre, London, Miami, Minneapolis, New York, Paris, Pittsburg, Quimper, Reims, Richmond, San Francisco, Tokyo and Zurich.
Gallery
Jean dunand, piatto in nichel argentato con decoro a piume di pavone, francia 1914.JPG, Jean Dunand, ''Peacock tray'', nickel and silver in a peacock feather design, (1914), Musée d'Orsay
The Musée d'Orsay ( , , ) ( en, Orsay Museum) is a museum in Paris, France, on the Left Bank of the Seine. It is housed in the former Gare d'Orsay, a Beaux-Arts railway station built between 1898 and 1900. The museum holds mainly French art ...
, Paris.
File:Tray MET sf23.176.6.jpg, Jean Dunand, Tray of copper inlaid with silver, about 1920 (Metropolitan Museum of Art).
File:"Fortissimo" MET DP282027.jpg, Jean Dunand, Detail of Decorative panel ''Fortissimo'' (1935) (Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...
).
File:'La Chasse (The Hunt)' by Jean Dunand, 1935, Wolfsonian-FIU Museum.jpg, Jean Dunand, ''The Hunt'', panel (1936), (Wolfsonian-FIU Museum
The Wolfsonian–Florida International University or The Wolfsonian-FIU, located in the heart of the Art Deco District of Miami Beach, Florida, is a museum, library and research center that uses its collection to illustrate the persuasive power o ...
).
File:Vase MET DP291251.jpg, Jean Dunand, Vase of lacquered metal, c. 1935 (Metropolitan Museum).
File:Jean dunand, vaso ovoide, 1935 ca., rame laccato.jpg, Jean Dunand, Lacquered vase, c. 1935 (Metropolitan Museum
The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...
).
File:Jean-théodore dupas e jean dunand, il carro di aurora, lacca e foglia metallica su gesso, 1935.jpg, Jean Dunand and Jean Dupas
Jean Théodore Dupas (21 February 1882 – 6 September 1964) was a French painter, artist, designer, poster artist, and decorator in the Art Nouveau and Art Deco styles.
Life
Dupas was born in Bordeaux. He won the Prix de Rome for painting in ...
, Panel of ''Chariot of Aurora'', lacquer and metal, gesso (1935), (Carnegie Museum of Art
The Carnegie Museum of Art, is an art museum in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Originally known as the Department of Fine Arts, Carnegie Institute and was at what is now the Main Branch of the Carnegie Library of Pittsbur ...
).
File:Easy Chair MET DP282017.jpg, Jean Dunand, Easy chair of lacquered wood and goatskin (1927-1928) (Metropolitan Museum).
Bibliography
*
* Félix Marcilhac, Jean Dunand: His Life and Work, London, Thames and Hudson, 1991
* Exhibition Catalogue "Madeleine Vionnet, Puriste de la Mode", Les Arts décoratifs, Paris, 24-06-2009 - 31-01-2010.
* E. Bénézit, "Dictionary of Artists", Paris 2006, Vol. 4, p. 1338-1339.
References
French furniture designers
French interior designers
Art Deco designers
1877 births
1942 deaths
Swiss Jews
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