.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
拍品專文
In 1905, Jean Dunand renounced the ‘Grand Art’ of sculpture and made the definitive choice to turn to decorative arts. After training under the coppersmith Dannhauer in Geneva, he presented his first dinanderie creations at the Salon de la Société Nationale in Paris, which was praised by critics. With a clear destiny, he would be the most important coppersmith of the 20th century; Constantly evolving, he would not stop building his knowledge and techniques with recognized artists of his time, such as the renowned Japanese lacquerer Seizo Sugawara (1884-1937).
The adventure commenced in the beginning of the year 1912, during which Dunand’s talents in lacquer work became apparent, owing to the different colors and even integration of mosaic eggshell inlay. The craftsmanship was about innovation and the knowledge of how to do so. Thanks to one of his first patrons, a young Alsatian doctor named Jean Goulden, he was able to exhibit his new creations every December from 1921 alongside those of Paul Jouve, François-Louis Schmied and Jean Goulden himself. These expositions spread over more than ten years, presented to the public a large choice of objects, some of which were their own collaborations. The association between Jean Dunand and Jean Goulden gave birth to nine pieces at the beginning of the 1920s, like the Cabinet (Lot 10) which was presented in December 1923 at the Galerie Georges Petit. Recalling the agricultural world of Jean Goulden's parents, its decor presents armfuls of glowing wheat and green foliage on a yellow, slightly clouded orange background. Signed with the two names on the interior doors, the signature of Jean Dunand clearly specifies “laqueur.” Thus, the simple execution of a design by Jean Goulden on a modern and functional frame to highlight the lacquer, runs through the doors and the sides of the furniture like a painting in contrasting colors.
Refining the lacquer technique on his furniture, panels, and screens until the end of his life, Jean Dunand very rarely adorned his pieces of furniture with ‘dinanderie’ plaques or cast or fire-patinated decoration. In the mid-1920s, coffee tables and nesting tables with brassware tops were marketed, but in small numbers. It was in 1928 that Jean Dunand achieved a tour de force by covering an entire table in dinanderie, including the top, the apron, and the supports (Lot 8). This was a special order for Charles Templeton Crocker, an important American patron and philanthropist, who in 1927 entrusted his San Francisco interior to Jean-Michel Frank and Jean Dunand. The former oversaw the entrance and the large living room while the later created important lacquer panels and numerous pieces of furniture throughout the Russian Hill apartment. In the patron's bedroom, the furniture is in gray lacquer, outlined in black, recalling the plasticity of the deer and the undergrowth that adorn the walls.
The motifs on the walls of the dining room shined in matte white and gold lacquer to highlight the rectangular table, the chairs, and the kitchen cart in brown tortoiseshell lacquer. Jean Dunand took a bold approach to the breakfast room: a black lacquer salon suite where small Japanese fish are displayed around an octagonal table reminiscent of the ceiling and its geometric patterns. Not referenced in the archival photos, the low table with a circular top entirely covered with copper dinanderie (Lot 8) constitutes a unique example of the adaptation of this technique to furniture, through this decoration of small circles of dinanderie and of different thicknesses, entirely patinated and inlaid with silver metal. However, he preferred to lacquer the tables entirely in a single color (Lot 13) or to amuse with inlay of eggshell or mother-of-pearl.
The deer motif in Templeton Crocker's bedroom was used soon after for another particularly important commission in Jean Dunand's career, the apartment of Madame Yacoubovitch's in Paris. Defying the economic crisis of 1929, Jean Dunand created very specific furniture for Madame Yacoubovitch, such as her wrought iron dining room table and lacquerware stretching over five meters, decorated with ducks for the dining room and trendy little monkeys for the living room. In the niche of the boudoir, two panels were found, very similar to Crocker’s, in gray and polychrome lacquer on a background of silver-gray lacquer (Lot 7). The staging is more compact than with the American patron: not present on the entire wall surface, the deer are grouped together, and the decor does not show a body of water, but rather a very flowery and colorful undergrowth. The deer with hollow shapes on a textured background and flowers in the foreground show a relief, very little known in the work of Jean Dunand until then, but which returns in his designs of 1931, on the panels commission for the Palais de la Porte Dorée, with jewels lacquered in relief, which he inlaid with ivory on his panel of “Women of Senegal”.
Amélie Marcilhac
Co-author of the monographie of Jean Dunand
Expert in 20th-Century Decorative Arts
The adventure commenced in the beginning of the year 1912, during which Dunand’s talents in lacquer work became apparent, owing to the different colors and even integration of mosaic eggshell inlay. The craftsmanship was about innovation and the knowledge of how to do so. Thanks to one of his first patrons, a young Alsatian doctor named Jean Goulden, he was able to exhibit his new creations every December from 1921 alongside those of Paul Jouve, François-Louis Schmied and Jean Goulden himself. These expositions spread over more than ten years, presented to the public a large choice of objects, some of which were their own collaborations. The association between Jean Dunand and Jean Goulden gave birth to nine pieces at the beginning of the 1920s, like the Cabinet (Lot 10) which was presented in December 1923 at the Galerie Georges Petit. Recalling the agricultural world of Jean Goulden's parents, its decor presents armfuls of glowing wheat and green foliage on a yellow, slightly clouded orange background. Signed with the two names on the interior doors, the signature of Jean Dunand clearly specifies “laqueur.” Thus, the simple execution of a design by Jean Goulden on a modern and functional frame to highlight the lacquer, runs through the doors and the sides of the furniture like a painting in contrasting colors.
Refining the lacquer technique on his furniture, panels, and screens until the end of his life, Jean Dunand very rarely adorned his pieces of furniture with ‘dinanderie’ plaques or cast or fire-patinated decoration. In the mid-1920s, coffee tables and nesting tables with brassware tops were marketed, but in small numbers. It was in 1928 that Jean Dunand achieved a tour de force by covering an entire table in dinanderie, including the top, the apron, and the supports (Lot 8). This was a special order for Charles Templeton Crocker, an important American patron and philanthropist, who in 1927 entrusted his San Francisco interior to Jean-Michel Frank and Jean Dunand. The former oversaw the entrance and the large living room while the later created important lacquer panels and numerous pieces of furniture throughout the Russian Hill apartment. In the patron's bedroom, the furniture is in gray lacquer, outlined in black, recalling the plasticity of the deer and the undergrowth that adorn the walls.
The motifs on the walls of the dining room shined in matte white and gold lacquer to highlight the rectangular table, the chairs, and the kitchen cart in brown tortoiseshell lacquer. Jean Dunand took a bold approach to the breakfast room: a black lacquer salon suite where small Japanese fish are displayed around an octagonal table reminiscent of the ceiling and its geometric patterns. Not referenced in the archival photos, the low table with a circular top entirely covered with copper dinanderie (Lot 8) constitutes a unique example of the adaptation of this technique to furniture, through this decoration of small circles of dinanderie and of different thicknesses, entirely patinated and inlaid with silver metal. However, he preferred to lacquer the tables entirely in a single color (Lot 13) or to amuse with inlay of eggshell or mother-of-pearl.
The deer motif in Templeton Crocker's bedroom was used soon after for another particularly important commission in Jean Dunand's career, the apartment of Madame Yacoubovitch's in Paris. Defying the economic crisis of 1929, Jean Dunand created very specific furniture for Madame Yacoubovitch, such as her wrought iron dining room table and lacquerware stretching over five meters, decorated with ducks for the dining room and trendy little monkeys for the living room. In the niche of the boudoir, two panels were found, very similar to Crocker’s, in gray and polychrome lacquer on a background of silver-gray lacquer (Lot 7). The staging is more compact than with the American patron: not present on the entire wall surface, the deer are grouped together, and the decor does not show a body of water, but rather a very flowery and colorful undergrowth. The deer with hollow shapes on a textured background and flowers in the foreground show a relief, very little known in the work of Jean Dunand until then, but which returns in his designs of 1931, on the panels commission for the Palais de la Porte Dorée, with jewels lacquered in relief, which he inlaid with ivory on his panel of “Women of Senegal”.
Amélie Marcilhac
Co-author of the monographie of Jean Dunand
Expert in 20th-Century Decorative Arts