French Design

Design is an important part of France’s economy and culture, and it’s also a big part of the country’s social life.
Louis Rault coin featured image

Louis Rault (1847 – 1903) was a French Sculptor, engraver, silversmith and jewellery designer.Between 1868 and 1875, Rault worked in the Boucheron workshop on the Place Vendôme in Paris. At the end of the nineteenth century, he set up a workshop where he produced silver and jewellery in the Art Nouveau style.Read More →

Unique Box circa 1928 by Jean Goulden

Jean Goulden was a French painter, musician, and crafter who lived from 1878 to 1946. During World War I, he found Byzantine enamels near Mount Athos in Macedonia. His Cubist pendulum clocks were some of his best pieces. Only 180 of his items are known to exist.Read More →

Little is known about the early life of France’s most distinguished type designer Claude Garamond, though he is mentioned as being “at work” in the printing business early in the sixteenth century, Garamond was commissioned by the French monarch, Francis I, to cut a font of Greek letter which later became known as the “Royal Greek Type.” Read More →

Andre Hermant Table 1937, France

In 1936, he became a member of UAM (Union des Artistes Modernes); after World War II, he participated in the reconstruction of the port of Le Havre under the direction of architect Auguste Perret.Read More →

Maison Desny Coupe

Desny was a Parisian lighting company founded in 1927 by designers Desnet and René Mauny and a business partner named Tricot. READ MORERead More →

Rose Mousse pattern for upholstery, cotton and silk (1920), Metropolitan Museum of Art by André Mare

Mare André was a french painter, decorator and furniture designer. He studied painting, at the Academie Julian, Paris. Read More →

Pierre Balmain black and white featured image

Pierre Balmain (1914 – 1982) was a French fashion designer and the influential postwar fashion house Balmain founder. He described the art of dressmaking as “the architecture of movement,” and he was known for his sophistication and elegance. LEARN MORERead More →

Serge Mouille

Serge Mouille was a French Lighting Designer; he was born and active in Paris. Mouille studied silversmithing, École des Artes Appliqués, Paris to 1941.Read More →

Exposition des Arts Décoratifs

Paris Exposition des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes was a vital exhibition that gave its name to ‘Art Deco,’ a rich vein of design across a wide range of applications, from cinemas to ceramics, textiles and tableware, and graphics to graphs.Read More →

Galeries Lafayette interior

The Galeries Lafayette reported revenue of more than five billion euros in 2019. Since 1960, it has belonged to the International Association of Department Stores. It now has a number of locations in France and other countries in addition to its flagship store on Boulevard Haussmann in Paris.Read More →

Maurice Dufrene Decorative arts in the Musée d'Orsay

Maurice Dufrêne (1876–1955) was a French decorative artist who headed the Maîtrise workshop of the Galeries Lafayette department store. He designed many different types of decorative art, including metalwork, ceramics, glass, and fabric. His designs from 1910 onward are austere and neoclassical, reminiscent of the Louis XVI style.Read More →

Art Nouveau: the French Aesthetic cover art

This book’s stature is rare. It took five years to compile 624 pages and 740 pictures about Art Nouveau in France.

Arwas examines the movement’s development in Nancy and Paris using never-before-published pictures. The comprehensive, witty narrative extends over architecture, haute couture, and the role of women in Art Nouveau with a look at Sarah Bernhardt, Loe Fuller, and the Grandes Horizontales.Read More →

Suzanne Guiguichon

Suzanne Guiguichon was a French furniture designer and decorator. She was born and worked in Paris. Since 1929 she worked as a designer with Maurice Dufrene at the Galeries Lafayette design studio La Maitrise in Paris. Most of the furniture, clocks, lighting, fabrics, rugs, accessories Guiguichon designed anonymously.Read More →

Alessi PSJS citrus juicer - featured image

Alessi PSJS Juicy Salif Citrus Squeezer designed by Philippe Starck On a sunny day inRead More →

Pierre Paulin Tongue Chair featured image

He was active in research for the government-sponsored Mobilier International. His first plastic object was the 1953 Chair 157 in polyester, ABS, and elastomers produced by Artifort of Maastricht. Around 1955, he was one of the first to work in elasticised fabrics for Thonet and subsequently for Artifort.Read More →

Richard Peduzzi on stage

Richard Peduzzi (b.1943) is a French painter and scenic furniture designer. Education He studied drawingRead More →

Max Ingrand featured image. A blue rectangular shaped lamp.

Maurice Max-Ingrand (1908–1969) was a French artist and stained glass artist. He was captured by the Nazis during World War II but returned to France in 1945. In 1968, he established Verre Lumière, one of the first businesses to manufacture halogen lamps.Read More →

Clément Mére furniture

Clément Mère was born in Bayonne and active in Paris. He was a French painter, table-builder, artist and furniture builder.

He studied painting with Jean-Léon Gérôme at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris.Read More →

SS Normandie Art Deco Palace

The ship, its decor, and furniture reflected everything stylish, sophisticated, forward-thinking, and French when it was launched in the age of grand style, a decade after the successful exposition of modern design at the 1925 Paris exhibition.Read More →

Raymond Subes Console with Marble Top

Raymond Subes (1893–1970) was a French metalsmith. He made ironwork for the oceanliners 1931 Atlantique, 1926 Ile-de-France, Pasteur, and 1935 Normandie. After World War II, he worked as a metalworker and became the head of Borderel et Robert.Read More →