Lot 547: PIERRE LEGRAIN (1889-1929)

PIERRE LEGRAIN (1889-1929) A DRAWING (DESK), CIRCA 1920 gouache, pen and black ink, and pencil on paper 24 ½ x 18 ¾ in. (62.2 x 47.5 cm.)

62.2 x 47.5 cm.

CIRCA 1920

P. Garner, ‘Pierre Legrain – Décorateur’, The Connoisseur, June 1975, p. 131.

Estate of Pierre Legrain; His son, Jacques-Anthoine Legrain; Mr. and Mrs. Robert Walker; Robin Symes, London; Sotheby's, New York, An Important Collection of 20th Century Furniture A Philip Johnson Townhouse, 6 May 1989, lot 30.

This design for a desk, to be executed in ebonized wood and galuchat, is an evocative symbol of a remarkable and productive collaboration through the 1920s – between Pierre Legrain, a multi-talented designer, and the distinguished patron and collector Jacques Doucet. Legrain conceived fine modern bindings for Doucet’s library, and remarkable furniture and furnishings for his apartments, first at the Avenue du Bois, then for the Villa Saint James at Neuilly, which became arguably the single most important synthesis of the best and most radical modern art and design of its era. Seated at this handsome desk, Doucet could contemplate extraordinary treasures – furniture by Rose Adler, Marcel Coard, Eileen Gray and further pieces by Legrain, and paintings and sculptures of great quality and historic significance. To his right was a splendid work by Matisse, to his left Douanier Rousseau’s ‘Snake Charmer’ and in front of him, through magnificent double doors by René Lalique, and past works by Brancusi and Modigliani, among others, hung Picasso’s ‘Les Demoiselles d’Avignon’.