Floor lamp, France 1928

Pierre Chareau designed this floor lamp in France in 1928.  This creation has gone to be the influence for an entire genre of lighting since that time. As early as 1900 he began his artistic career as a student of the famous Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris where he focused on architecture and design. By the 1920’s he was already known in the design world for his complex structures and innovative use of architectural space. Chareau began to explore an interest in Cubist space by the mid 1920’s and soon after his designs became highly sculptural. He is known for his use of combining materials such as lightly hammered steel, unpolished metals, and rich mahogany.

Pierre Chareau

The French architect and designer Pierre Chareau first came to public notice through the work he exhibited at the Salon dAutomne and the Société des ArtistesDécorateurs after the First World War. He contributed the study of the Ambassade Francaise at the Paris 1925 exhibition and subsequently divided his time between furniture design and architectural works, including the Beauvallon Golf Club (1927), the interior of the Grand Hotel de Tours (1929) and his Maison de Verre (1928-31), so called because of an innovative use of glass tiles on the exterior. He was a member of the Union des Artistes Modernes from its inception in 1930. His chair designs of the early 1920s show a preference for undecorated ample rounded forms, executed in highly polished woods - mahogany, walnut, oak, ash or maple - with rich upholstery. Later in the decade he began to experiment with fumiture using metal frames for public commissions such as bars, hotels, and clubs. His designs for chairs, stools, tables and cupboards in wood and metal received much praise from contemporary publications for their functional approach and combination of elegance and technical ingenuity.