239 - Charlotte Perriand (French, 1903–1999)

Charlotte Perriand (French, 1903–1999) Les Arcs Console Table Pine. Circular base. Height 97, Width 14.5, Depth 61 cm. Tabletop thickness 5.9 cm. Provenance: former apartment in Les Arcs 2000, Savoie. Related works: - Jacques Barsac, “Charlotte Perriand: An Architect in the Mountains,” Norma, 2023, featuring a larger console table with a base created for the bar at the Hôtel le Doron, reproduced on p. 59; - Pisa auction, Paris, October 4, 2023, a freestanding console table for Les Arcs 1600, circa 1970, lot no. 220. In 1967, developer Roger Godino commissioned Charlotte Perriand (1903–1999) to work on the Les Arcs resort in Haute-Tarentaise. For twenty years, she worked there with the Atelier d’architecture en montagne, Pierre Faucheux, and Bernard Taillefer. She replaced the planned high-rises with “horizontal buildings” that follow the slope. She designed architecture “from the inside out”: large windows overlooking the mountains, an open kitchen connected by a serving hatch, and prefabricated polyester bathrooms in Arc 1800. The furniture followed the same logic. Following trials in Paris at the workshop of André Chetaille—her cabinetmaker since the 1950s—the wooden furniture—stools, benches, tables, and storage units—went into mass production: the influx of housing units made it necessary to standardize the interiors. The company Arc Mobilier, whose first store opened in Arc 1600, aims to “promote local manufacturing and the woodworking industry.” The resort has been designated as having “remarkable contemporary architecture.”