Jean-Michel Frank (28 February 1895 – 8 March 1941) was a French

interior design Interior design is the art and science of enhancing the interior of a building to achieve a healthier and more aesthetically pleasing environment for the people using the space. An interior designer is someone who plans, researches, coordina ...

er known for

minimalist In visual arts, music and other media, minimalism is an art movement that began in post–World War II in Western art, most strongly with American visual arts in the 1960s and early 1970s. Prominent artists associated with minimalism include Don ...

interiors decorated with plain-lined but sumptuous furniture made of luxury materials, such as

shagreen Shagreen is a type of rawhide consisting of rough untanned skin, historically from a horse's or onager's back, or from shark or ray. Etymology The word derives from the French ''chagrin'' and is related to Italian ''zigrino'' and Venetian '' ...

mica Micas ( ) are a group of silicate minerals whose outstanding physical characteristic is that individual mica crystals can easily be split into extremely thin elastic plates. This characteristic is described as perfect basal cleavage. Mica is ...

, and intricate straw

marquetry Marquetry (also spelled as marqueterie; from the French ''marqueter'', to variegate) is the art and craft of applying pieces of veneer to a structure to form decorative patterns, designs or pictures. The technique may be applied to case furn ...

. He had an eye for exotic patterns, specifically in veneers, including snake and sharkskin. His work became widely known in the 1930s when select, higher classes demanded his furniture. He is known for being associated with 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 ...

movement.

Early life

Jean-Michel Frank was born in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

, a son of Léon Frank, a banker, and his wife and cousin, the former Nanette Frank. He was a first cousin of

Otto Frank Otto Heinrich Frank (12 May 1889 – 19 August 1980) was a German businessman who later became a resident of the Netherlands and Switzerland. He was the father of Anne and Margot Frank and husband of Edith Frank, and was the sole member of ...

, the cousin-in-law of

Edith Frank Edith Frank (; 16 January 1900 – 6 January 1945) was the mother of Holocaust diarist Anne Frank, and her older sister Margot. After the family were discovered in hiding in Amsterdam during the Nazi occupation, she was transported to Auschwitz- ...

and, therefore, a first cousin, once removed, of the diarist

Anne Frank Annelies Marie "Anne" Frank (, ; 12 June 1929 – )Research by The Anne Frank House in 2015 revealed that Frank may have died in February 1945 rather than in March, as Dutch authorities had long assumed"New research sheds new light on Anne Fra ...

. Frank was fluent in French, English and German. During school, he was bullied by his classmates for being Jewish; this was during the time in which the

Dreyfus Affair The Dreyfus affair (french: affaire Dreyfus, ) was a political scandal that divided the French Third Republic from 1894 until its resolution in 1906. "L'Affaire", as it is known in French, has come to symbolise modern injustice in the Francop ...

divided France.

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

came with many challenges for the Frank family. First, it disrupted Frank’s original plans to go into the field of law or banking. From 1904, he attended the

Lycée Janson de Sailly In France, secondary education is in two stages: * ''Collèges'' () cater for the first four years of secondary education from the ages of 11 to 15. * ''Lycées'' () provide a three-year course of further secondary education for children between ...

in Paris and began law school in 1911. However, his two older brothers, Oscar and Georges, were sent off to fight in the war, both having died within two months of each other in 1915. Both of Frank’s parents were German nationals, so they were placed under house arrest. After losing his civil rights and money, Frank’s father was fearful of being taken by the Germans. On 11 November 1915, he committed suicide by jumping from the window of his apartment. Frank’s mother became depressed and eventually died in 1928 after being in a Swiss asylum for several years. Distressed by the deaths he had experienced, Frank suffered from depression throughout his whole life. He also became addicted to drugs, particularly opium.

Career

Frank found himself with a substantial family inheritance, enabling him to travel around Paris from 1920 to 1925. His newfound wealth also allowed him to become acquainted and work with an elite network of people. In Venice he met the cosmopolitan society that gathered around

Stravinsky Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (6 April 1971) was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor, later of French (from 1934) and American (from 1945) citizenship. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential 20th-century clas ...

and

Diaghilev Sergei Pavlovich Diaghilev ( ; rus, Серге́й Па́влович Дя́гилев, , sʲɪˈrɡʲej ˈpavləvʲɪdʑ ˈdʲæɡʲɪlʲɪf; 19 August 1929), usually referred to outside Russia as Serge Diaghilev, was a Russian art critic, pat ...

. Around 1927,

Eugenia Errázuriz Eugenia Huici Arguedas de Errázuriz (15 September 1860 – 1951) was a Chilean patron of modernism and a style leader of Paris from 1880 into the 20th century, who paved the way for the modernist minimalist aesthetic that would be taken up in fas ...

introduced him to 18th century styles and her own modern, minimalist aesthetic, and she became his mentor. Though Frank never received any formal training or education in the design field, his use of natural materials and simplicity were widely favored. Frank sought to design spaces that were uncluttered, featured neutral color schemes, and exotic patterns. His idea of simplicity extended to everything including his wardrobe; having owned forty of the exact same gray flannel shirts. Frank drew inspiration from Ancient Egypt, Louis XVI, and the Art Deco movement. According to Frank, "the noble frames that came to us from the past can receive today's creations." Throughout his career, Frank collaborated with designers and artists, such as,

Diego Giacometti Diego Giacometti (15 November 1902 – 15 July 1985) was a Swiss sculptor and designer, and the younger brother of the sculptor Alberto Giacometti. Youth Diego Giacometti was born in Borgonovo, a Swiss village near the Italian border. Son of An ...

, Salvador Dali,

Emilio Terry Emilio Rene Terry y Sánchez (1890–1969), known as Emilio Terry was a French architect, artist, interior decorator and landscape designer of Cuban-Irish ancestry. Creating furniture, tapestries and objets d'art, he was influenced by the château d ...

, and Christian Berard. Club chair - Jean-Michel Frank (39609645132)

In the 1920s, Frank and Adolphe Chanaux, a parisian decorator, met and inaugurated a collaboration that launches them into the center of Parisian art life. Frank and Chanaux searched for "balance" and developed a classic expression of spaces. Together, they decorated apartments for Jean-Pierre Guerlain,

Marie-Laure de Noailles Marie-Laure Henriette Anne de Noailles, Vicomtesse de Noailles (; née Bischoffsheim; 31 October 1902 – 29 January 1970) was a French artist, regarded one of the 20th century's most daring and influential patrons of the arts, noted for her asso ...

, and

Louis Aragon Louis Aragon (, , 3 October 1897 – 24 December 1982) was a French poet who was one of the leading voices of the surrealist movement in France. He co-founded with André Breton and Philippe Soupault the surrealist review ''Littérature''. He wa ...

. In 1924, Frank was commissioned by Jean Rene Guerrand to design a unique collection of home furniture. Part of this collection was the sheepskin Club Chair and Parchment-Covered Dressing Table. During the 1930s, Frank was a teacher for design at the Paris Atelier, a satellite school of

Parsons School of Design Parsons School of Design, known colloquially as Parsons, is a private art and design college located in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City. Founded in 1896 after a group of progressive artists broke away from established Manhatt ...

, where he developed the famous

parsons table The Parsons table is a modernist square or rectangular table whose four legs are square in cross-section, flush with the edges of the top, and equal to it in thickness. The Parsons table was designed by Jean-Michel Frank while he was working at ...

. Frank challenged his students to create a table that would retain its integrity whether sheathed in gold leaf, mica, parchment, or even painted burlap. Thus, the T- square table was developed. This table got its name due to the perpendicular relationship between the leg and the tabletop. Constructed by a Parsons handyman according to the design drawings drawn by Frank's students, the table was first executed in New York for a student exhibition.In 1932, Frank and Chanaux opened a shop at #140

Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré The Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré () is a street located in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, France. Relatively narrow and nondescript, especially in comparison to the nearby Avenue des Champs-Élysées, it is cited as being one of the most luxu ...

. In 1932, Jean-Pierre Guerlain commissioned Frank to design his new apartment: Avenue Hoche. The apartment consisted of a selection of works by Frank including a pair of chairs made from oak and leather and a set of side chairs in a restrained Louis XVI style. His search for lines, curves, and mixing of materials lead him to the

Nelson Rockefeller Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller (July 8, 1908 – January 26, 1979), sometimes referred to by his nickname Rocky, was an American businessman and politician who served as the 41st vice president of the United States from 1974 to 1977. A member of t ...

's lavish

Fifth Avenue Fifth Avenue is a major and prominent thoroughfare in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It stretches north from Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village to West 143rd Street in Harlem. It is one of the most expensive shopping stre ...

apartment in New York in 1937. Nelson Rockefeller was one of the most legendary and wealthy public figures in the United States at the time. Th
Rockefeller living room
included expensive furnishings, Aubusson rugs, armchairs, and thirteen meters of green and white hand woven silk delivered from France. "Reports from refugees about the persecution of homosexuals and Jews prompted Jean-Michel Frank to leave Paris in 1940. By way of Lisbon, he emigrated to Buenos Aires..." In

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

, Jean-Michel Frank worked with his old friend and business associate, Ignacio Pirovano, on several private and commercial projects. Jean-Michel Frank kept his private apartment in Buenos Aires on the top floor of the company of which he was the Artistic Director in Argentina. This building was located on the corner of Florida Street and Marcelo T. De Alvear Avenue. He also visited many of his clients in Buenos Aires including the Born family; whose mansion in the northern suburbs of Buenos Aires remains one of his many important projects. Frank's pursuit of simple forms can also be seen in lighting designs. Frank's lights were classic-modern combined with exotic, textured materials, such as, plaster, mica, obsidian, vellum, and terracotta. The "Block Lamp" is an example of his innovation by covering a rectangular block with a grid of mica sheets; an old technique from Roman artisans. The "X" lamp was composed of metal, wood, and terracotta in its raw, unglazed state.

Alberto Giacometti Alberto Giacometti (, , ; 10 October 1901 – 11 January 1966) was a Swiss sculptor, painter, draftsman and printmaker. Beginning in 1922, he lived and worked mainly in Paris but regularly visited his hometown Borgonovo to see his family and ...

collaborated with Frank in the making of terracotta objects like floor lamps, vases, candle holders, and table lamps.

Death

Throughout his life, Frank was troubled by loss, depression, drug addiction, homophobic taunts and anti-Semitism. On 8 March 1941, while in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, he committed suicide at the age of 46. Despite claims that Frank died by throwing himself from the window of the Manhattan apartment he was staying in, he actually overdosed on

barbiturate Barbiturates are a class of depressant drugs that are chemically derived from barbituric acid. They are effective when used medically as anxiolytics, hypnotics, and anticonvulsants, but have physical and psychological addiction potential as we ...

s. Maarten van Buuren, Frank’s biographer and a professor of modern literature at

Utrecht University Utrecht University (UU; nl, Universiteit Utrecht, formerly ''Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht'') is a public research university in Utrecht, Netherlands. Established , it is one of the oldest universities in the Netherlands. In 2018, it had an enrollme ...

in the Netherlands, confirmed this when reading Frank's autopsy report and death certificate. Frank left the following suicide note, written in English: "I do this for no reason but ill health. I ask all my friends who have been so good to me to forgive me. I thank them deeply for trying to help me, but I have no strength to go on. I am too ill." His personal possessions were left in his apartment in Buenos Aires.

Lasting impact

Today, Frank is recognized by leading designers around the world as one of the greatest sources of inspiration to many present-day designs. His works are highly sought after by leading collectors worldwide. Many of the premier auction houses offer his pieces, and prices are often in excess of 200,000 EUR.Sotheby's, 20th Century Decorative Arts and Design, 24 November 2010, lot 8. http://www.sothebys.com/es/catalogues/ecatalogue.html/2010/20th-century-decorative-arts-design-pf1025#/r=/es/ecat.fhtml.PF1025.html+r.m=/es/ecat.lot.PF1025.html/8/ An important exhibition was mounted towards the end of 2010 at a leading gallery in New York's SoHo. This exhibition highlighted Frank's work with Comte in Argentina.

References

External links

Short biographyFrank in ArgentinaCasa Comte and Jean-Michel Frank