Jules Leleu (1883-1961) was a French furniture designer, decorator and sculptor, and one of the defining figures of Art Deco. Born in Boulogne-sur-Mer into a family of artisans and decorators, he took over his father's decorative painting business with his brother Marcel, and turned the firm - Maison Leleu, in the family since the eighteenth century - towards furniture after the First World War.
South American
René Joubert (1878-1931) was a French architect and cabinetmaker, and the founder of Décoration Intérieure Moderne. He established DIM in 1918 with the stage designer Georges Mouveau, and from 1924 worked with Philippe Petit, whose partnership with Joubert produced the firm's best known interiors.
Jean Lurçat (1892-1966)
A French artist born in Bruyères, France 1892, Jean Lurçat has been hailed as the father of modern tapestry, revitalizing their popularity during the twentieth century. He spend his academic years at the Académie Colarossi, where he studied along pupils such as Paul Cezanne, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Henri Matisse. Much of his early work drew heavily from avant-garde and Cubist direction.
The fame of the finely-crafted decorative rugs from the city of Tabriz can be traced back to at least the 16th century when the Safavid court commissioned these extraordinary carpets for use in palaces, holy sites, and tombs. The famed Ardebil Carpet, long housed in London’s Victoria & Albert Museum, is considered the finest extant example of 16th century Tabriz carpet weaving.
A.W.N. Pugin (1812-1852) was the architect and designer who, more than anyone, gave the Gothic Revival its principles. Trained by his father, the architectural draughtsman Augustus Charles Pugin, he was designing professionally by fifteen, when he was commissioned to produce a Gothic chalice for George IV.
Portrait by an unidentified painter, about 1840. National Portrait Gallery, London; the painting is out of copyright, via Wikimedia Commons.
May Morris (1862-1938) was an English embroiderer, designer, jeweller and editor, and the younger daughter of William Morris and Jane Morris. Born Mary Morris at Red House in Bexleyheath, she learned to embroider from her mother and her aunt Bessie Burden, and enrolled at the National Art Training School, later the Royal College of Art, in 1878.
Photograph by the Bain News Service. Library of Congress (lccn.loc.gov/2014683895), public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
(October 28th, 1888 – October 18th, 1967)
Stephane Boudin was born on October 28, 1888, and was a French interior designer. Boudin was famously known for his design work when he joined Maison Jansen’s firm, first as the son of Jansen’s tassels and trim supplier. Boudin would soon become one of the era’s most celebrated decorators, enhancing Jansen’s reputation for historically researched chic interiors still further.