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Historiography
Cloé Pitiot (Editor), Nina Stritzler-Levine (Editor)
Description: Eileen Gray
Eileen Gray
Historiography
Author
Cloé Pitiot (Editor), Nina Stritzler-Levine (Editor)
PublisherBard Graduate Center
Copyright© 2020 Bard Graduate Center: Decorative Arts, Design History, Material Culture
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Historiography
Historiography and Notes on Collections and Archives
On February 20, 2013, the exhibition Eileen Gray opened at the Musée National d’Art Moderne—Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris,1Eileen Gray exhibition at the Musée National d’Art Moderne—Centre Pompidou from February 20 to May 20, 2013. exactly forty years after the first retrospective of Gray’s work, Eileen Gray: Pioneer of Design,2Exhibition in March–April 1973. organized by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) at the Heinz Gallery in London. After traveling to the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin, an updated version of the Pompidou exhibition is now being presented at the Bard Graduate Center Gallery in New York City. It likewise arrives almost forty years after the first New York exhibition, Eileen Gray: Designer, curated by J. Stewart Johnson at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in 1980.3Eileen Gray: Designer, The Museum of Modern Art February 7 to April 1, 1980. Curated by J. Stewart Johnson In nearly half a century after the beginning of a widespread renewal of interest in Eileen Gray, new research on the Irish-born designer has provided previously unknown information about her life and work. Some of the material Gray kept is now in museums and private collections.
The picture is nevertheless incomplete, owing to numerous incidents that resulted in the destruction of many documents during the Second World War or caused by looting, fires, issues with Gray’s estate, and the ownership of her materials after she died in 1976. None of the interiors that she designed have survived intact, although her architecture remains; the seaside house E 1027 in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, which is currently undergoing restoration, the house Tempe a Pailla outside Castellar, still in its original state, and the Provençal house Lou Pérou, near Saint-Tropez, which has been heavily altered.
The initial investigations into Gray’s work were led by British academics and architects, the first of which was an article published in Domus4Rykwert Joseph, “Un omaggio a Eileen Gray, pioniera del design,” Domus, Milan, n° 469, December 1968, p. 33–46. in 1968 by the architecture historian Joseph Rykwert entitled “Un omaggio a Eileen Gray, pioniera del design.” The Heinz Gallery at the RIBA in London organized its Eileen Gray exhibition four years later. Curated by the English architect Alan Irvine, the exhibition and accompanying catalogue, Eileen Gray: Pioneer of Design,5Eileen Gray: Pioneer of design, exhibition catalog, Heinz Gallery, Royal Institute of British Architects [RIBA] / Westerham Press Printed, 1973. instigated an interest in Gray that has since continued unabated. In 1979 the exhibition Eileen Gray: Designer opened at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, before going to the Scottish Arts Council in Edinburgh and finally to MoMA in 1980. The MoMA exhibition was responsible for building an American audience for Gray’s work.
In France, similar attention to Gray’s œuvre would have to wait until the early 1980s: Jean-Paul Rayon and Brigitte Loye Deroubaix published an article on Gray in Casabella in 1982,6Jean-Paul Rayon and Brigitte Loye, “Eileen Gray 1879-1976,” Casabella, vol. 46, n° 480, May 1982, p. 38-45. and Loye Deroubaix published a book on the subject two years later.7B. Loye, Eileen Gray: 1879–1976: Architecture, Design, introduction by Michel Raynaud, Paris, Analeph/J.P. Viguier, 1984. Two significant works released during the 1990s greatly enriched our understanding of the designer. Filmmaker Peter Adam, who was a close friend of Gray’s during the last fifteen years of her life, published Eileen Gray, Architect/Designer: A Biography.8Peter Adam, Eileen Gray, Architect/Designer. A Biography, New York, H. N. Abrams, 1987. And Philippe Garner, who was then an expert at Christie’s in London and had met with Gray and studied her furniture, published the book Eileen Gray: Design and Architecture.9Philippe Garner, Eileen Gray. Design and Architecture, 1878-1976, Cologne, Taschen, 1993 (reedition 2006).
In 2000 Caroline Constant, a professor emeritus of architecture and architectural historian, broke new ground on Gray’s work as an architect with the book Eileen Gray, which includes a comprehensive annotated list of Gray’s built and unbuilt projects.10Caroline Constant, Eileen Gray, Phaidon, London, 2000.
Publications continued in 2012, with Eileen Gray: Her Life and Her Work, a second book by Peter Adam and The Eileen Gray Collection at the National Museum of Ireland by Jennifer Goff.11Peter Adam, Eileen Gray: Sa Vie, son Oeuvre, Paris, Editions de la Différence, 2012. That book, based on Goff’s doctoral thesis, was republished as Eileen Gray: Her Work and Her World by Irish Academic Press in 2015.12Jennifer Goff, Eileen Gray: Her Work and Her World, Irish Academic Press, Co. Kildare, 2015. It remains the most comprehensive account of Gray’s life and work.
Perhaps inspired by this half-century of research, written accounts, and exhibitions, new information continues to appear. Since the 2013 exhibition Eileen Gray at the Centre Pompidou, and its tour in the fall of 2013 to the Irish Museum of Modern Art under the title Eileen Gray: Architect, Designer, Painter,13October 12, 2013–January 26, 2014. additional research has been conducted. Scholars have been able to more clearly define the chronology and scope of Gray’s work, draw new connections between the various disciplines in which she practiced, and better understand the professional and social networks that informed her work. Access to archival sources, including information on previously unknown works, have proved invaluable as well. These last ten years of research are evident in this book, and they form another significant contribution to the growing body of work on Eileen Gray, creating a portrait of the artist that will presumably continue to be enriched by other scholars in the years to come.
Selected Museum Collections Consulted for this Project
Germany:
The Vitra Design Museum, Weil-am-Rhein, has several pieces, including two tables, two chairs, and three versions of the Coiffeuse-Screen created for Tempe a Pailla.
England:
The Victoria and Albert Museum, London, has a wide variety of pieces in its remarkable collection, including one black brick screen and one screen in black and red lacquer decorated with silver leaf—both dating from 1923—as well as the S-Bend chair created for Tempe a Pailla. The museum also has an extensive archive of design and architectural drawings, many still in need of formal cataloguing.
The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), London, has architectural drawings and models as well as drawings for rugs by Eyre de Lanux.
The Bristol Museums & Art Gallery, Bristol, has one of Gray’s last pieces, the Cork Screen, made in 1973.
The Portsmouth City Museum and Art Gallery, Portsmouth, also has an example of the 1973 Cork Screen.
The Leicestershire Museum and Art Gallery, Leicestershire, has five pieces, including one example of the 1973 Cork Screen, one collage from the 1940s, a rug and a dining room chair—both dating from the 1970s—and a coffee table produced by Zeev Aram at the end of the 1970s.
United States:
The Museum of Modern Art, New York, has eight works: one lacquered black brick screen, the Dining Room Table from E 1027, a pair of chairs from Tempe a Pailla, the Tube Lamp, the Adjustable Table, two rugs, and a drawing of a rug.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, has one chair and two lamps, as well as several rug design drawings.
The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, maintains a significant collection of furniture, including the famous Lit pirogue, De Stijl table, and one lamp.
The Maryhill Museum of Art, Klickitat County, Washington, has one of the earliest examples of Gray’s lacquer work: a stunning lacquer panel from the early 1910s.
France:
The Musée National d’Art Moderne–Centre Pompidou, Paris, holds the most complete collection of works from E 1027, including nine original pieces: the Breakfast table, Element table, Wheeled table, Transat chair, Armchair, dining room chair, Curved sofa, Cabinet with pivoting drawers, and Coiffeuse-screen. The museum also has a number of architectural drawings, as well as the armchair designed for Louise Dany, Gray’s longtime housekeeper.
The Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, holds the third Coiffeuse-Screen, which had belonged to Jean Badovici, as well as the Mobile Table, the Transportable Coiffeuse, one rug, and an early drawing for the Bedroom-Boudoir for Monte Carlo. It is one of the few museums—along with the National Museum of Ireland and the Museum of Modern Art in New York—to possess an original rug from the 1920s.
Ireland:
The National Museum of Ireland, Dublin, has the largest collection of works by Eileen Gray, the purchase of which was spearheaded by curator Jennifer Goff in 2002. The collection includes the prototype white brick screen from the Bedroom-Boudoir for Monte Carlo, which was presented at the 14th Salon de la Société des Artistes Décorateurs in 1923, the Celluloid screen, an armchair, chairs, tables, personal items of Gray’s, lacquer samples, studies, and an unparalleled number of design and architectural drawings.
Archival collections consisting of Eileen Gray’s own archives
England:
The Victoria and Albert Museum, London, holds one of the most extensive archival collections, donated by Eileen Gray’s niece, the painter Prunella Clough. Included are a number of architectural drawings, furniture designs, sketches of unidentified projects, cliché verre prints, bills, notes, and letters, as well as the ledger for Galerie Jean Désert, the notebook for rugs, and the notebook for lacquer work. This last source was extensively studied for this catalogue by a specialist in lacquer restoration, Anne Jacquin.14See Chapter 8. This collection, which was the first amassed by any institution, has served as the primary source for a number of researchers. It is most comprehensive in coverage of the 1920s, the period during which the Galerie Jean Désert operated, and it has been used to authenticate many pieces with yet uncertain provenance. The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), London, holds a collection of photographs, drawings, and models.
Ireland:
The National Museum of Ireland, Dublin, maintains an extensive collection of Gray’s archives, gifted by Peter Adam, including correspondence, notebooks, sketches, photographs, and notes. This collection has proven invaluable to re-searchers; it covers most periods of Gray’s life, as well as topics such as architecture, design, lacquer, fabric, and rugs. Books and journals from Eileen Gray’s library are included as well. The Irish Architectural Archive (IAA), Dublin, holds several models of architectural projects that were never constructed.
The National Irish Visual Arts Library (NIVAL), in Dublin, holds archives on a project of re edition of Gray’s rugs from Ireland after the Second World War.
Archives
Jean Badovici:
The Getty Research Institute, in Los Angeles, maintains an extensive archival collection relating to the career and personal life of Jean Badovici. Included are architectural blueprints, drawings, notebooks, correspondence with pivotal modernist architects, periodicals, photographs, and preparatory plates for the magazine L’Architecture Vivante. Many of these documents help to illuminate aspects of his relationship with Eileen Gray. Most notably, this has made it possible to devote careful study to the original manuscript for Badovici and Gray’s article describing E 1027, which was eventually published in a special issue of L’Architecture Vivante in 1929.15Eileen Gray, Jean Badovici, E 1027: Maison en bord de mer. Special issue of L’Architecture Vivante, Paris, Editions Albert Morancé, 1929. The collection also contains documents relating to various new projects, which could be further elucidated by Gray’s archives at the Victoria and Albert Museum. A study of the relationship between these two collections would be of great interest and enable scholars to understand the roles that Gray and Badovici each played in the design and construction of E 1027, or in writing various co-authored articles in L’Architecture Vivante. The Bibliothèque Kandinsky, Paris, holds two archival collections related to Gray. One comprises photographs taken by the architect Alan Irvine, which include many pictures of Gray’s work, as well as portraits of her in her later years. The other, more recent addition includes drawings of the construction site for the Maison Renaudin in Vézelay, the project on which Gray and Badovici collaborated in the mid-1920s. The Musée de la Marine, Paris, has information on Badovici’s E7 lifeboat. The Mairie de Menton in the south of France was consulted for information relating to E 1027. The Fondation Le Corbusier, Paris, holds correspondence between Jean Badovici and Le Corbusier regarding E 1027.
Three other collections, still in private hands in France, pertain to Jean Badovici. The hope is that they will at some point be opened to the public to allow for further study of the architect, theorist, and urbanist who—though still poorly understood today—greatly influenced architecture from the 1920s through the 1950s.
Alma de Bretteville Spreckels:
The Archives of American Art, Smithonian Institution, Washington, DC, holds the fonds of Alma de Bretteville Spreckels, the American philanthropist who organized the transportation of works by Eileen Gray and Rodin in 1915 for the Panama-Pacific International Exposition.
Romaine Brooks & Natalie Clifford Barney:
The Bibliothèque Jacques Doucet, Paris
The Bibliothèque Marguerite Durand, Paris
Jacques Doucet:
The Bibliothèque Littéraire Jacques Doucet, Paris The Bibliothèque de l’Institut National d’Histoire de l’Art, Paris
Loïe Fuller:
New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, New York
Stephen Haweis:
Columbia University, New York, holds the archives of Stephen Haweis, on which Jennifer Goff is actively working, which contains numerous letters between the artist and Eileen Gray. The two corresponded until Haweis’s death, discus sing their daily lives, as well as painting and art.
Kichizo Inagaki: The Musée Rodin, Paris, has a remarkable archival collection regarding sculptor and furniture maker Kichizo Inagaki. Inagaki sculpted Rodin’s pedestals and provided a number of elements for Gray’s furniture pieces.
Eyre de Lanux:
The Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, holds the fonds of artist and writer Eyre de Lanux. It seemed to us important to study these records in order to better understand the link between Gray and Lanux, both of whom additionally shared contact with artist and textile maker Evelyn Wyld. Surprisingly, no drawings or furniture designs were found in the otherwise substantial archives. The collection is comprised of letters, manuscripts, photographs, drawings, and sketches for paintings. There is also information on Eyre de Lanux’s desire to open a gallery for art and furniture, but nothing on her own works, or on the works that are today attributed to her. The collection also contains a number of manuscripts related to her publications in French and English language journals. It has allowed scholars to better situate the period during which Eyre de Lanux and Evelyn Wyld collaborated, as well as the moment when the former abandoned collaboration with Eileen Gray.
Juliette Lévy:
The Bibliothèque Historique de la Ville de Paris, Paris, holds photographs which display the interiors that Gray designed for Juliette Lévy.
Auguste Rodin:
The Musée Rodin, Paris, has records of the correspondence between the sculptor and Gray, as well as letters that shed light on the collaboration involved in the 1915 Panama–Pacific International Exposition, between Rodin, Loïe Fuller, Alma de Bretteville Spreckels, Gabrielle Bloch, and Eileen Gray.
Evelyn Wyld:
The Archives of American Art, in Washington, holds the archives of Eyre de Lanux, which contain a number of references to Evelyn Wyld.
The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), London, holds archives regarding Evelyn Wyld. Notably, a notebook taking inventory of all of Wyld’s rugs has been found, making it possible to differentiate her works from Gray’s own.
For publications, and periodicals on the work of Eileen Gray:
The Bibliothèque Kandinsky, Paris
The Bibliothèque du Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris
The Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris
The Bibliothèque de l’Institut National d’Histoire de l’Art, Paris
The Bibliothèque Forney, Paris
For the archives of the Société des Artistes Décorateurs:
The Bibliothèque du Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris
 
1     Eileen Gray exhibition at the Musée National d’Art Moderne—Centre Pompidou from February 20 to May 20, 2013. »
2     Exhibition in March–April 1973. »
3     Eileen Gray: Designer, The Museum of Modern Art February 7 to April 1, 1980. Curated by J. Stewart Johnson »
4     Rykwert Joseph, “Un omaggio a Eileen Gray, pioniera del design,” Domus, Milan, n° 469, December 1968, p. 33–46. »
5     Eileen Gray: Pioneer of design, exhibition catalog, Heinz Gallery, Royal Institute of British Architects [RIBA] / Westerham Press Printed, 1973. »
6     Jean-Paul Rayon and Brigitte Loye, “Eileen Gray 1879-1976,” Casabella, vol. 46, n° 480, May 1982, p. 38-45. »
7     B. Loye, Eileen Gray: 1879–1976: Architecture, Design, introduction by Michel Raynaud, Paris, Analeph/J.P. Viguier, 1984.  »
8     Peter Adam, Eileen Gray, Architect/Designer. A Biography, New York, H. N. Abrams, 1987. »
9     Philippe Garner, Eileen Gray. Design and Architecture, 1878-1976, Cologne, Taschen, 1993 (reedition 2006). »
10     Caroline Constant, Eileen Gray, Phaidon, London, 2000. »
11     Peter Adam, Eileen Gray: Sa Vie, son Oeuvre, Paris, Editions de la Différence, 2012. »
12     Jennifer Goff, Eileen Gray: Her Work and Her World, Irish Academic Press, Co. Kildare, 2015. »
13     October 12, 2013–January 26, 2014. »
14     See Chapter 8. »
15     Eileen Gray, Jean Badovici, E 1027: Maison en bord de mer. Special issue of L’Architecture Vivante, Paris, Editions Albert Morancé, 1929. »