This article forms part of the Decorative and Applied Arts Encyclopedia, a master reference hub providing a structured overview of design history, materials, movements, and practitioners.
André Fréchet (1875–1973) and his son Paul Fréchet (1908–1949) were French decorators and furniture designers whose careers connected education, exhibition design, cabinetmaking and state patronage. Earlier accounts sometimes described them as brothers, but the Mobilier national identifies Paul explicitly as André’s son. Their combined work belongs to the development of French Art Deco, particularly its balance of traditional craftsmanship, ordered composition and modern domestic use.
Although they collaborated, André and Paul followed distinct professional paths. André shaped French design education as director of the École Boulle and supplied designs for exhibitions, interiors and official furnishings. Paul trained within that institutional culture, worked for Jacques-Émile Ruhlmann and later developed a career that included furniture shown at major salons and commissioned for French government interiors.
André Fréchet and French Furniture Design
André Fréchet established his reputation as a decorator, furniture designer and teacher during the early decades of the twentieth century. A chair made for the office of the industrialist Pierre Levasseur, now held by the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, dates from 1917–1919. The documented object places Fréchet’s work within the formative period of French Art Deco, when designers were adapting established cabinetmaking methods to new expectations of comfort, clarity and modernity.
His most influential institutional position was at the École Boulle, the Paris school devoted to furniture, interior decoration and applied arts. André served as its director from 1919 until 1934. The appointment placed him at the centre of a system that joined drawing, technical training and workshop practice. His importance therefore extended beyond the objects produced under his name: he helped educate designers and craftspeople who carried French furnishing traditions into the interwar period.
André also worked with specialist manufacturers and workshops capable of translating a designer’s drawings into finished furniture. The official report of the 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes records a dining room composed by A. Fréchet and executed by Jacquemin, as well as a bedroom designed by Fréchet and produced by Vérot. These documented collaborations show how authorship in French decorative art frequently depended on cooperation between the designer, cabinetmaker, textile workshop and retailer.
École Boulle and the 1925 Paris Exhibition
The 1925 exhibition gave French designers an international platform and later supplied the name “Art Deco.” André contributed both through his own work and through the École Boulle. The school’s presentation demonstrated the continued relevance of skilled hand production at a moment when designers were negotiating the relationship between luxury craft and modern manufacture.
André also designed for Studium-Louvre, the decorative-arts workshop of the Grands Magasins du Louvre. Surviving documentation for the 1925 exhibition identifies a lemonwood boudoir by Fréchet in the Studium pavilion. Its inclusion alongside rooms by other prominent designers placed his furniture within a coordinated modern interior rather than presenting it as an isolated object.
Paul Fréchet: Training and Independent Career
Paul Fréchet entered the École Boulle in 1923 while his father was director. According to the Mobilier national, Maurice Dufrêne was among his teachers. Paul subsequently worked as a draughtsman for Jacques-Émile Ruhlmann, one of the leading figures in luxury French Art Deco. This experience placed him in a professional environment noted for disciplined proportion, costly materials and close coordination between design and execution.
Paul later collaborated with André, while also exhibiting and accepting commissions under his own name. Furniture by father and son was produced by firms including Jacquemin, Vérot, Jeanselme and Roche. Their participation in the Salons des Artistes Décorateurs and the 1937 international exhibition connected their work with the principal institutions through which French decorators presented new furniture to critics, patrons and manufacturers.
The 1937 exhibition marked an important stage in Paul’s career. After the event, the Mobilier national acquired an office ensemble designed by him through the house of Jeanselme. Further state commissions followed from 1943. These included office furniture and a lemonwood salon ensemble made by Gazel et Cie in 1945–1946 for the secretary-general of the civil household of the President of the Republic at the Élysée Palace.
Paul’s career ended prematurely when he died during a journey to Portugal in 1949. The surviving furniture in the Mobilier national collection nevertheless documents an independent body of work rather than a secondary role beneath his father’s name. Its provenance also demonstrates how French Art Deco principles continued to shape official interiors during the 1940s.
Furniture, Tapestry and State Commissions
André Fréchet’s work for public institutions often brought furniture design into dialogue with tapestry. The Mobilier national records several ensembles in which carved or polished wooden frames designed by André supported textiles woven by the Manufacture de Beauvais. These commissions joined the work of decorators, sculptors and tapestry designers within a unified furnishing programme.
One prominent example is the group known as Mobilier républicain or Les Ministères. Its Beauvais upholstery was woven from cartoons by Émile Gaudissard between 1929 and 1933 and mounted on gilded beech frames designed by André Fréchet. The ensemble was intended for official ceremonies, although the Mobilier national notes that it was never used. Other documented pieces include walnut or cherrywood frames made for Beauvais tapestry suites during the late 1920s and early 1930s.
The Fréchets’ Place in French Art Deco
The work of André and Paul Fréchet illustrates the institutional character of French Art Deco furniture. Their careers moved between schools, salons, department-store workshops, specialist manufacturers and government collections. This network encouraged continuity in traditional skills while allowing designers to simplify forms and adapt historic materials to modern rooms.
André’s legacy rests partly on his furniture and partly on his leadership of the École Boulle. Paul extended that legacy through professional training, work with Ruhlmann and independently documented state commissions. Treating them accurately as father and son makes their relationship more historically meaningful: it reveals how knowledge passed between generations while each designer responded to a changing decorative-arts culture.
Sources
Byars, M., & Riley, T. (2004). The design encyclopedia. Laurence King Publishing.
École Boulle. (n.d.). Histoire de l’école. https://old.ecole-boulle.org/histoire-de-lecole/
France, Ministère du Commerce et de l’Industrie. (1925). Exposition internationale des arts décoratifs et industriels modernes: Rapport général. Conservatoire numérique des Arts et Métiers. https://cnum.cnam.fr/pgi/redir.php?ident=4XAE94.4&onglet=c
Les Arts Décoratifs. (n.d.). Chaise: Bureau de Pierre Levasseur, André Fréchet, 1917–1919. https://collections.madparis.fr/document/chaise/627a8beb3edd954622480862
Mobilier national. (n.d.). Console, GME 10269. https://collection.mobilier-national.fr/objet/GME-10269-000
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