Pierre Chareau

France

Person

Designer

Born 4 August 4 1883 Bordeaux, France Died 24 August 1950 New York City, New York, United States Pierre Chareau attended fine arts classes at the École des beaux-arts in Paris from c. 1900. After working as a tracer and later chief designer at Waring & Gillow in Paris, he established Atelier Pierre Chareau in 1919 and presented his interior design for Dr. Jean Dalsace’s apartment at the Salon d’automne. In 1924 he opened La Boutique, a shop devoted to his own furniture and designs. He gained widespread recognition at the 1925 Paris World’s Fair. In 1926 he completed his first architectural commission, the clubhouse for the Beauvallon golf club, and exhibited furniture combining wood and wrought iron. Among his most important works was the Maison de Verre in Paris, completed in 1931 for Jean Dalsace. In 1929 he designed wrought-iron furniture for the offices of 'La Semaine à Paris'. He joined the Union des artistes modernes (UAM) in 1930 and designed ready-to-assemble school furniture in 1936. In 1940 he left France to escape anti-Semitic persecution and settled in New York the following year. From 1942 to 1944 he organized exhibitions and conferences on French applied arts and, from 1946, worked as artistic advisor to the French cultural attaché. In 1947 he converted a military hut into a house and studio for the painter Robert Motherwell in East Hampton, New York.