243 - Yvonne Mottet (French, 1906–1968)

Yvonne Mottet (French, 1906–1968) Mockups and color studies for textile designs, 1936–49 A collection of over 100 pencil and gouache sketches, in small and large formats, on thick paper and tracing paper, drawn between 1936 and 1949, featuring floral, graphic, and stylized motifs; a number of them are painted in solid blocks of bright colors. Some drawings are numbered in pencil (catalog references), while others bear the official registration stamp of the artistic property union with the handwritten notation “Design registered by Miss Mottet” and are dated. These test plates, intended for haute couture houses, are essential for understanding her work as a designer. Before sketching a complex pattern, she had to define the “color palette”—or color harmony—that would appeal to silk buyers and fashion designers. This work attests to Yvonne Mottet’s talent as a colorist. It is this same mastery of pure, vibrant, and bold colors that she would retain and transpose, years later, into her paintings on canvas. Enclosed: 7 figurative portraits drawn by Yvonne Mottet on paper, in various sizes, in pencil and oil, some signed. Among them is a study of a First Communion girl surrounded by her parents, rendered in three sketches in pencil, ink, and oil. Provenance: the artist’s estate. Yvonne Mottet, Designer of Patterns for Haute Couture Although Yvonne Mottet (1906–1968) is best known today as a leading figure in postwar figurative painting, particularly within the Jeune Peinture movement, her career between the two world wars was devoted almost exclusively to textile design and haute couture. This period of her life revolved around two key phases that laid the foundation for her future as a painter. Les Soieries Ducharne (1927–1930) In October 1927, Yvonne Mottet joined the design studio of the famous silk house Ducharne, located on Rue Tourlaque in Paris. At that time, she identified herself as a “designer” rather than a painter. It was in this veritable creative laboratory that she met Bernard Lorjou, a pattern maker and silk designer, who would become her partner for the rest of her life. Within a few years, Soieries F. Ducharne became a leading institution in the global luxury industry. The company forged exclusive ties with the elite of the haute couture world of the time: Paul Poiret, Madeleine Vionnet, Elsa Schiaparelli, Jean Patou, Coco Chanel, Edward Molyneux, Lucien Lelong, and later Christian Dior, Cristóbal Balenciaga, and Yves Saint Laurent. Independence and International Success (the 1930s and Postwar Years) Hit hard by the Great Depression, Soieries Ducharne closed its workshop in 1930. Mottet and Lorjou then decided to continue designing fabric patterns for haute couture as independent designers. Their success was immense: their designs were purchased by manufacturers in New York, London, and Tokyo, and were worn by prominent figures such as the Duchess of Windsor. This exceptional commercial success during the 1930s was pivotal: it provided the couple with genuine financial security, allowing them, in the words of the time, to “paint in peace.” It was only in the aftermath of World War II, bolstered by this financial foundation, that Yvonne Mottet turned her back on textiles to make her mark on the art scene by co-founding the group L’Homme témoin in 1948.