Armand-Albert Rateau (born 24 February 1882 in Paris; died there 20 February 1938) was a French furniture maker and interior designer. In 2006, ''The Grove Encyclopedia of Decorative Arts'' characterized him as "the most eminent of the ensembliers, the high-style designer-decorators" who worked with luxury materials for the socially elite.
[Campbell (2006), 254.] In 2012, ''
Architectural Digest
''Architectural Digest'' (stylized in all caps) is an American monthly magazine founded in 1920. Its principal subjects are interior design and landscaping, rather than pure external architecture. The magazine is published by Condé Nast
...
'' described him as "one of the most exclusive interior designers of the 1920s." Two of his more notable achievements are the bronze furniture of his manufacture and the designs he assembled in decorating the apartment of
Jeanne Lanvin
Jeanne-Marie Lanvin (; 1 January 1867 – 6 July 1946) was a French haute couture fashion designer. She founded the Lanvin fashion house and the beauty and perfume company Lanvin Parfums.
Early life
Jeanne Lanvin was born in Paris on 1 Janu ...
.
Career
Rateau was born in 1882.
Trained at the
École Boulle
The École Boulle is a college of fine Arts and Crafts, arts and crafts and applied arts in Paris, France. It is located at 9-21, rue Pierre-Bourdan in the 12th arrondissement of Paris, 12th arrondissement of Paris (France). It accepts students a ...
, Rateau took a formative trip with friends in 1914 to Naples and Pompei, visiting museums and archaeological sites.
[Christie's (2013).] When he began his career with renowned designer
Georges Hoentschel, his focus was on Classical style. At the age of 23, he became the artistic director of Alavoine and Company, which was one of the most important French companies in decoration at the time. In 1919, bolstered by the reputation he earned for his Classical work with Hoentschel and Alavoine, he set up his own house.
[
Rateau's first important project was a commission from the United States, to furnish the swimming pool of ]George
George may refer to:
Names
* George (given name)
* George (surname)
People
* George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George
* George Papagheorghe, also known as Jorge / GEØRGE
* George, stage name of Gior ...
and Florence Meyer Blumenthal
Florence Meyer Blumenthal (1875 – 1930) was an American philanthropist who founded the ''Fondation franco-américaine Florence Blumenthal (Franco-American Florence Blumenthal Foundation),'' which awarded the Prix Blumenthal from 1919-1954 to pa ...
.[ There, he began to work with the themes he had observed in his 1914 journey, creating the first bronze furniture pieces which would come to be so strongly associated with him.][ In 1920, he began working with French ]couturier
(; ; French for 'high sewing', 'high dressmaking') is the creation of exclusive custom-fitted high-end fashion design. The term ''haute couture'' generally refers to a specific type of upper garment common in Europe during the 16th to the 1 ...
Jeanne Lanvin, redesigning several of her properties, and soon thereafter began work designing for the Duchess of Alba.[ He became one of the most important designers of the ]Art Deco
Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...
furniture and decor movement in France, with an emphasis on Antiquity that also included a focus on Egyptian-based design.Arpège
Arpège () is a 1927 perfume created by perfumers André Fraysse and Paul Vacher for Jeanne Lanvin and presented to her musician daughter Marie-Blanche on her 30th birthday. Its name is a derivation of the musical term ''arpeggio''. Arpège ...
.
Legacy
The furniture that he designed in 1928 for Lanvin's apartment on rue Barbet-de-Jouy in Paris was donated by Prince Louis de Polignac to the Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris in 1965. The entire apartment has been created and is on display there.[McConnachie and Blackmore (2012), 135.]
Notes
References
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* Armand-Albert RATEAU mirror at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...
under th
accession number #25170
also at th
Morateur Gallery
Collection of Angeles.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rateau, Armand-Albert
French interior designers
1882 births
1938 deaths
Place of birth missing
French furniture designers
Art Deco designers