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Eileen Gray (born Kathleen Eileen Moray Smith; 9 August 187831 October 1976) was an Irish interior designer, furniture designer and architect who became a pioneer of the Modern Movement in architecture. Over her career, she was associated with many notable European artists of her era, including Kathleen Scott, Adrienne Gorska,
Le Corbusier Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (6 October 188727 August 1965), known as Le Corbusier ( , ; ), was a Swiss-French architectural designer, painter, urban planner and writer, who was one of the pioneers of what is now regarded as modern architecture ...
, and the architect Jean Badovici, with whom she was romantically involved and who taught her architecture and collaborated with her on various buildings. Their most famous work is the house known as E-1027 in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, France.


Early life

Gray was born Kathleen Eileen Moray Smith on 9 August 1878 at Brownswood, an estate near
Enniscorthy Enniscorthy () is the second-largest town in County Wexford, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. The town is located on the picturesque River Slaney and in close proximity to the Blackstairs Mountains and Ireland's longest beach, Curracloe. The Plac ...
in
County Wexford County Wexford () is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster and is part of the Southern Region, Ireland, Southern Region. Named after the town of Wexford, it was ba ...
in the south-east of
Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...
. She was the youngest of five children. Her father, James McLaren Smith, was a Scottish landscape painter. He encouraged Gray's interest in painting and drawing. Although he was a minor figure, James corresponded with major artists of the day. Her parents’ marriage ended in divorce when she was eleven and her father left Ireland to live and paint in Europe. Gray's mother, Eveleen Pounden, was a granddaughter of Francis Stuart, 10th Earl of Moray. She became the 19th Baroness Gray in 1895 after the death of her uncle. Although the couple was already separated by this point, Gray's father changed his name to Smith-Gray by royal licence and the four children were from then on known as Gray. Gray split her upbringing between Brownswood House in Ireland and the family's home at No. 14 The Boltons, in Kensington, London. She was presented as a debutante at Buckingham Palace in 1898. Both Gray's brother and father died in 1900.


Education

Gray briefly attended a school in
Dresden Dresden (; ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; , ) is the capital city of the States of Germany, German state of Saxony and its second most populous city after Leipzig. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, 12th most p ...
, Germany but was mainly educated by
governess A governess is a woman employed as a private tutor, who teaches and trains a child or children in their home. A governess often lives in the same residence as the children she is teaching; depending on terms of their employment, they may or ma ...
es. Gray's serious art education began in 1900 at the Slade School in London. Gray was a registered fine arts student at the Slade from 1900 to 1902. Although fine arts education was typical for a young woman of Gray's class, Slade was an unusual choice. Known as a bohemian school, the classes at Slade were generally co-educational which was usual for the time. Gray was one of 168 female students in a class of 228. Gray had many influential teachers at the Slade, including Philip Wilson Steer, a Romantic landscape painter,
Henry Tonks Henry Tonks, Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, FRCS (9 April 1862 – 8 January 1937) was a British surgeon and later draughtsman and painter of figure subjects, chiefly interiors, and a Caricature, caricaturist. He became an influentia ...
, a surgeon and figure painter, and Frederick Brown. While at the Slade, Gray met furniture restorer Dean Charles in 1901. Charles was Gray's first introduction to lacquering and she took lessons in the technique from his company in Soho. Further on in her carer, she created the Brick Screen which used the Japanese Lacquer techniques she learnt at the Slade School of Art In 1902, Gray moved to Paris with Kathleen Bruce and Jessie Gavin. They enrolled at the Académie Colarossi, an art school popular with foreign students, but soon switched to the
Académie Julian The () was a private art school for painting and sculpture founded in Paris, France, in 1867 by French painter and teacher Rodolphe Julian (1839–1907). The school was active from 1868 through 1968. It remained famous for the number and qual ...
. In 1905, Gray returned to London to be with her ill mother. For the next two years, she studied lacquering with Dean Charles before returning to Paris. When she returned to Paris, Gray purchased a flat in the
rue Bonaparte The Rue Bonaparte () is a street in the 6th arrondissement of Paris. It spans the Quai Voltaire/Quai Malaquais to the Jardin du Luxembourg, crossing the Place Saint-Germain-des-Prés and the Place Saint-Sulpice and has housed many of France's mos ...
, and began training with Seizo Sugawara. Sugawara was from Jahoji, a village in northern
Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...
famous for its lacquer work, and he was in Paris to restore the lacquer pieces Japan had sent to the Exposition Universale. Gray was so dedicated to learning the trade that she suffered the so-called lacquer disease, a painful rash on her hands, but that did not stop her from working. In 1910, Gray opened a lacquer workshop with Sugawara. By 1912, she was producing pieces to commission for some of Paris's richest clients. Gray served as an ambulance driver at the beginning of
World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
before returning to England to wait out the war with Sugawara.


Interior design

After the war Gray and Sugawara returned to Paris. In 1917, Gray was hired to redesign the Rue de Lota apartment of society hostess Juliette Lévy. Also known as Madame Mathieu Levy, Juliette owned the fashion house and millinery shop. The Rue de Lota apartment has been called "the epitome of
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 ...
." A 1920 issue of ''
Harper's Bazaar ''Harper's Bazaar'' (stylized as ''Harper's BAZAAR'') is an American monthly women's fashion magazine. Bazaar has been published in New York City since November 2, 1867, originally as a weekly publication entitled ''Harper's Bazar''."Corporat ...
'' describes the Rue de Lota apartment as ‘thoroughly modern although there is much feeling for the antique’. The furniture included some of Gray's best known designs – the Bibendum Chair and the Pirogue Day Bed. The Bibendum chair was a take on the
Michelin Man Bibendum (), commonly referred to in English as the Michelin Man or Michelin Tire Man, is the official mascot of the Michelin tire company. A humanoid figure consisting of stacked white tire, tires, it was introduced at the Lyon Exposition inter ...
with tire like shapes sitting on a chromed steel frame. The chair's shape is reminiscent of the voluptuous figures of women in renaissance paintings, while the geometry calls back to the ideals of Werkbund. The Pirogue Day Bed was gondola-shaped and finished in patinated bronze lacquer, and is inspired by Polynesian dugout canoes. This "boat-bed" may also have been influenced by the Irish currach. The critical and financial success of the project prompted Gray to open her own shop in 1922. Jean Désert was located on the fashionable Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré in Paris. The shop was named after an imaginary male owner “Jean” and Gray's love of the North African desert. Gray designed the facade of the shop herself. Jean Désert sold the abstract geometric rugs designed by Gray and woven in Evelyn Wyld's workshops. Clients included
James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (born James Augusta Joyce; 2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influentia ...
,
Ezra Pound Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an List of poets from the United States, American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Ita ...
and Elsa Schiaparelli. Early on Gray used luxurious materials like exotic woods, ivory and furs. In the mid-1920s, her pieces became simpler and more industrial. This reflects her growing interest in the work of Le Corbusier and other Modernists, who valued utility and mathematical principles over ornamentation. Jean Désert closed due to financial losses in 1930.


Architecture

By 1921, Gray was romantically involved with Romanian architect and writer Jean Badovici who was 15 years her junior. He encouraged her growing interest in architecture. From 1922/1923 to 1926 Gray created an informal architectural apprenticeship for herself as she never received any formal training as an architect. She studied theoretical and technical books, took drafting lessons, and arranged to have Adrienne Gorska take her along to building sites. She also traveled with Badovici to study key buildings and learned by reworking architectural designs. In 1926, she started work on a new holiday home near Monaco to share with Badovici. Because a foreigner in France couldn't wholly own property, Gray bought the land and put it in Badovici's name, making him her client on paper. Construction of the house took three years and Gray remained on site while Badovici visited occasionally. The house was given the enigmatic name of E-1027. It was code for the lovers' names; the E standing for Eileen, the 10 for J, meaning Jean, the 2 for B standing for Badovici and the 7 for G standing for Gray. E-1027 is routinely described as a masterpiece. E-1027 is a white cuboid built on rocky land on raised on pillars. According to Frances Stonor Saunders, E-1027 was formulated on Le Corbusier's "Five Points of the New Architecture" because it is an open plan house which stands on pillars with horizontal windows, an open facade and a roof accessible by staircase. However, Gray was critical of the avant-garde movement's focus on the exterior of buildings, writing "The interior plan should not be the incidental result of the facade; it should lead to a complete harmonious, and logical life." According to architecture critic Rowan Moore, E-1027 "grows from furniture into a building." By this point, Gray was fascinated by lightweight, functional, multi-purpose furniture which she called "camping style". She created a tea trolley with a cork surface, to reduce the rattling of cups, and positioned mirrors so a visitor could see the back of their head. At the entrance of E-1027 Gray created a celluloid niche for hats with net shelves to allow a clear view without the risk of dust settling. When E-1027 was finished, Badovici devoted an edition of his magazine to it and announced himself as its joint architect. This claim is disputed by Jennifer Goff, a curator at the National Museum of Ireland. According to Goff's research all extant plans of the house were in Gray's hand alone and “Badovici’s role was firstly client and secondly consultant architect.” In her six-year collaboration with Badovici, Gray was able to create 9 buildings and renovations, 4 of which were credited to Badovici. Gray and Badovici broke up and in 1931 Gray started work on a new house, Tempe à Pailla, above the nearby town of
Menton Menton (; in classical norm or in Mistralian norm, , ; ; or depending on the orthography) is a Commune in France, commune in the Alpes-Maritimes department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region on the French Riviera, close to the Italia ...
. The name Tempe à Pailla is translated into English as "Time and Hay" and references a Provençal proverb that say both are needed for figs to ripen. It was a small two bedroom house with a large terrace. Much of the furniture was transformable, including expandable wardrobes and a dining banquette that both folded for storage and could be turned into an occasional table. With Tempe à Pailla, Gray moved away from Le Corbusier's free plan ideal and created more separate spaces while maximizing the house's panoramic views. Gray's design also maximized airflow and natural light with features such as shuttered windows and skylights. Gray's multi-level kitchen was influenced by Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky's Frankfurt Kitchen.
Le Corbusier Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (6 October 188727 August 1965), known as Le Corbusier ( , ; ), was a Swiss-French architectural designer, painter, urban planner and writer, who was one of the pioneers of what is now regarded as modern architecture ...
often stayed at E-1027 as a guest of Badovici, who owned it, and in 1938/1939 he painted murals there. Gray had expressed a wish that E-1027 be free of any decoration. His drawing ''Three Women'' might depict Eileen and Jean together. Beatriz Colomina, in her seminal article "War On Architecture: E.1027", makes the assertion that, as the archetypical colonist, Le Corbusier didn't think of it as "an invasion, but as a gift ..the type of gift thatcan not be returned". In 2013, ''
The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. First published in 1791, it is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper. In 1993 it was acquired by Guardian Media Group Limited, and operated as a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' ...
'' critic Rowan Moore called it an “act of naked phallocracy” by a man asserting “his dominion, like a urinating dog, over the territory”, the nature of this "spasm of comic brutality" being "hotly debated" as "an act of vandalism... infringement of the original architect's intellectual property... a bravura improvement" or "just plain snobbery and sexism". One of the murals, titled ''Three Women'', might be Le Corbusier's response to Gray's use of desire and femininity in her work. The content of the painting (three feminine figures intertwined) could be a reference to Gray's
bisexuality Bisexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or Human sexual activity, sexual behavior toward both males and females. It may also be defined as the attraction to more than one gender, to people of both the same and different gender, ...
. Other owners of E-1027 included Marie-Louise Schelbert, a friend of Corbusier's, and Heinz Peter Kägi. Architect Renaud Barrés is the current owner. E-1027 was also the setting for many tragedies. In 1965, Le Corbusier died of a heart attack shortly after swimming at the beach located nearby. In 1996, Heinz Peter Kägi, Marie-Louise Schelbert's gynecologist, was stabbed to death during an altercation with two men in the living room.


World War I

In 1919 the 10th Salon des Artistes Decorateurs featured inexpensive postwar furniture. The goal of the Salon des Artistes was to reconstruct Paris and erase the scars of the war left on the country. In its efforts, multiple artists sought to reestablish that Paris was still the "intellectual capital of the world". During this post-war reconstruction the push for modernization was ever-more evident. This exhibition was made in an attempt to endorse new arts of the French renaissance, stepping up to German designers. Gray participated in the exhibition, however her works were not recorded. In 1920 ''
Harper's Bazaar ''Harper's Bazaar'' (stylized as ''Harper's BAZAAR'') is an American monthly women's fashion magazine. Bazaar has been published in New York City since November 2, 1867, originally as a weekly publication entitled ''Harper's Bazar''."Corporat ...
'', an article dedicated to keeping record of Gray's lacquer work stated "Laquer Walls and Furniture Displace Old Gods in Paris and London."


World War II

During World War II, Gray was interned as a foreign national, and her houses were looted. Many of her drawings, models, architectural notes, and personal papers were destroyed by bombing. German soldiers used the walls of E-1027 for target practice.


Later life

Renewed interest in Gray's work began in 1967 when historian Joseph Rykwert published an essay about her in the Italian design magazine '' Domus''. After the publishing of the article many "students began to ring at her door" as eager to learn from the now famous designer. At a Paris auction of 1972, Yves Saint Laurent bought ''Le Destin'' and revived interest in Gray's career. The first retrospective exhibition of her work, titled ''Eileen Gray: Pioneer of Design'', was held in London in 1972. A Dublin exhibition followed the next year. At the Dublin exhibit, the 95 year-old Gray was given an honorary fellowship by the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland. In 1973 Gray signed a contract to reproduce the Bibendum chair and many of her pieces for the first time, with Aram Designs Ltd, London. They remain in production. Eileen Gray died on Halloween 1976. She is buried in the
Père Lachaise cemetery Père Lachaise Cemetery (, , formerly , ) is the largest cemetery in Paris, France, at . With more than 3.5 million visitors annually, it is the most visited necropolis in the world. Buried at Père Lachaise are many famous figures in the ...
in Paris, but because her family omitted to pay the licence fee her grave is not identifiable.


Personal life

Gray was
bisexual Bisexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior toward both males and females. It may also be defined as the attraction to more than one gender, to people of both the same and different gender, or the attraction t ...
. She mixed in the lesbian circles of the time, being associated with
Romaine Brooks Romaine Brooks (born Beatrice Romaine Goddard; May 1, 1874 – December 7, 1970) was an American painter who worked mostly in Paris and Capri. She specialized in portrait painting, portraiture and used a subdued tonal Palette (painting), palette ...
,
Loie Fuller Loie Fuller (; born Marie Louise Fuller; January 15, 1862 – January 1, 1928), also known as Louie Fuller and Loïe Fuller, was an American dancer and a pioneer of modern dance and theatrical lighting techniques. Auguste Rodin said of her, "Lo ...
, Marie-Louise Damien (a singer with the stage name ''Damia''), and Natalie Barney. Gray's intermittent relationship with Marie-Louise Damien ended in 1938, after which they never saw each other again, although both lived into their nineties in the same city. Gray also had for some time an intermittent relationship with Jean Badovici, the Romanian architect and writer. He had written about her design work in 1924 and encouraged her interest in architecture. Their romantic involvement ended in 1932. Having never lived in Ireland during her adult life, in her old age she reportedly stated, "I am without roots, but if I have any, they are in Ireland".


Posthumous

Gray's achievements were restricted during her lifetime. According to Reyner Banham, " ileen Gray's workwas, also, in its day, part of a personal style and philosophy of design which was, by the look of things, too rich for the punditry to take. And if the punditry didn't publish you, particularly in the great canon-defining compendia of the thirties, forties and fifties you dropped off the record, and ceased to be a part of the universe of scholarly discourse." The National Museum of Ireland has a permanent exhibition of her work in the Collins Barracks site. In February 2009, Gray's "Dragons" armchair made by her between 1917 and 1919 (acquired by her early patron Suzanne Talbot and later part of the Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé collection) was sold at auction in Paris for €21.9 million (US$28.3 million), setting an auction record for 20th-century decorative art. Marco Orsini's documentary, '' Gray Matters'', was released in 2014. A biopic on Gray's life by Mary McGuckian, '' The Price of Desire'' opened in 2016. A 2020 short film by Michel Pitiot, ''In Conversation with Eileen Gray'', was based on an unreleased 1973 interview with Andrew Hodgkinson. In 2024 a Swiss documentary by Beatrice Minger and Christoph Schaub with the title '' Eileen Gray and the House by the Sea'' was screened at the Zurich Film Festival.


Exhibition history

* "Eileen Gray", Bard Graduate Center Gallery, New York City, 29 February – 12 July 2020. * "Eileen Gray", Centre Pompidou, Paris, 20 February – 20 May 2013. * "Eileen Gray", The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 6 February – 1 April 1980.


References


Further reading

*Toromanoff, Agata (2021). Raising The Roof - Women Architects Who Broke Through The Glass Ceiling. Slovenia: Prestel. ISBN 978-3-7913-8663-8. * *Adam, Peter (2019). Eileen Gray—Her Life and Work. London: Thames & Hudson. * * * * * * Charlotte Malterre-Barthes and Zosia Dzierżawska. ''Eileen Gray: A House Under the Sun''. London: Nobrow, 2019. * * *


External links

*
Official Eileen Gray WebsiteFriends of E.1027, non-profit organization dedicated to the restoration and preservation of E.1027
* ttp://graymattersthedoc.com/ Official website of Marco Antonio Orsini's feature-length documentary, ''Gray Matters''br>Official website of Mary McGuckian's feature drama on the life of Gray, ''The Price of Desire''
* Finding aid for Eileen Gray architectural drawings, 1930-1947,
Getty Research Institute The Getty Research Institute (GRI), located at the Getty Center in Los Angeles, California, is "dedicated to furthering knowledge and advancing understanding of the visual arts".
, Los Angeles. Accession No. 2002.M.25. *Hecker, Stefan., Eileen Gray, and Christian F. Müller. ''Eileen Gray''. 1.a edición. Barcelona: Gustavo Gili, 1993. *Pitiot, Cloé, Nina Stritzler-Levine, Renaud Barrès, Catherine Bernard, and Caroline Constant. ''Eileen Gray''. Bard Graduate Center, 2020. *Adam, Peter, and Eileen Gray. ''Eileen Gray: Her Life and Work''. Updated edition. Thames & Hudson, 2019. *Tyler, Rachel Siobhan. “Revealing the Hidden Colour in Representations of Eileen Gray’s Modern Architecture and Design.” ''Journal of Design History'' 33, no. 2 (May 2020): 123–39. https://doi.org/10.1093/jdh/epaa010. {{DEFAULTSORT:Gray, Eileen 1878 births 1976 deaths 19th-century Anglo-Irish people 20th-century Anglo-Irish people Alumni of the Slade School of Fine Art Académie Colarossi alumni Bisexual women artists British debutantes British women artists Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery 20th-century Irish architects Irish expatriates in France Irish furniture designers Irish people of Scottish descent Irish LGBTQ artists Irish bisexual women LGBTQ architects Modernist architects Modernist designers People from Enniscorthy British women architects Académie Julian alumni Irish women architects 19th-century Irish LGBTQ people 20th-century Irish LGBTQ people Architects from County Wexford