Lot 35: PIERRE LEGRAIN (1888-1929)

PIERRE LEGRAIN (1888-1929) >PAIRE DE FAUTEUILS, VERS 1926 <br>En chêne, gainés de cuir teinté, les pieds en dents de scie >Hauteur : 80,5 cm. (31 23 in.) ; Largeur : 76,5 cm. (30 1/8 in.) ; Profondeur : 71 cm. (28 in.) >Portant une étiquette ancienne (traces) avec l'inscription <i>Date 1112/74, n. 2018, Mr Sydney Lewis. USA, PROVENANCE Mr Argy au courant sur un pied

E. Tisserand, L'Art Décoratif dans L'Art Vivant, n. 73, 1er janvier 1928, p. 20 pour une vue dans le cabinet de travail de Maurice Martin-du-Gard. >Catalogue de vente Millon & Robert, Paris, Art Nouveau Art Déco, 25 novembre 1999, p. 28 pour une vue d'un des fauteuils chez M. et Mme Robert Walker.

Maurice Martin-du-Gard, Paris. >Collection M. et Mme Robert Walker, Paris.
Vente Millon & Associés, Paris, 25 novembre 1999, lot 129. >Galerie l'Arc en Seine, Paris.
Collection M. Laurent Negro, Château de Gourdon. >Vente Christie's, Les Collections du Château de Gourdon, 29 mars 2011, lot 76. >Collection privée européenne, acquis dans la précédente.

A PAIR OF OAK AND LEATHER UPHOLSTERED ARMCHAIRS BY PIERRE LEGRAIN, CIRCA 1926 >These armchairs - distinguished by their strong, geometric structure and serrated wood bases that reference both Cubist and tribal art sources - were created by Legrain for the study of writer Maurice Martin-du-Gard. Contemporary critic Ernest Tisserant reviewed in eulogistic terms, in a January 1928 feature in L'Art Vivant, the results of the commission that involved Legrain redecorating
and furnishing the entrance area, study, dining room and bedroom of the author's home. Tisserand acknowledged the evident rapport between designer and client, explaining that 'Pierre Legrain had well understood Maurice Martin-du-Gard, who had surely appreciated that this would be the case.' >
We know that these armchairs were bought by M.Sydney Lewis in 1974, whose collection now belongs to the Virginian Museum of Decorative Arts, Richmond, USA, but cannot confirm when they were sold in order to include him in the chain of provenance.