Paul Follot (1877-1942)

Pair of stained beech armchairs with gondola backs and armrests carved with a basket of flowers on a lattice background. Carved corner legs. Circa 1925 Dim. H: 81 cm - W: 65 cm - D: 69 cm Bibliography: Joseph-Antoine Angeli, Paul Follot, un puriste en Art Déco 1877-1941, Éditions Persée, Aix-en-Provence, 2016, similar model reproduced on p. 37. Trim not original. As is, with no notable damage. Biography (Wikipedia): Born in 1877, Paul Follot was the son of wallpaper manufacturer Félix Follot. After studying with Eugène Grasset, he turned to the decorative arts. In 1901, he worked for Julius Meier-Graefe's gallery La Maison Moderne, designing jewelry and tapestries. Paul Follot met Maurice Dufrène, who also worked for Julius Meier-Graefe. This meeting was to have a major influence on Paul Follot's subsequent artistic career. After co-founding the artists' group L'Art dans Tout in 1903, his career as a decorator took off when he went freelance in 1904. In 1907, he married Elfriede Vendel-Jörgensen, a German painter. They had two children, Erwin (1908-1957) and Sylvie (1912-1997). Paul Follot was a founding member of the Société des artistes décorateurs, and took part in the 1908 and 1909 Salons, blazing a new trail in French decorative art. It was around this time that he decided to move into his Paris townhouse, at no. 5 rue Victor-Schœlcher (XIVe arrdt), which he wanted to make a home for himself and his family, a studio (designed by architect Pierre Selmersheim in 1914, based on Follot's drawings) for his creations, and a place to exhibit his work. In 1911, he designed ceramics for Wedgwood, textiles for Cornille et Cie, and silver objects for Christofle. In 1920, he began a course in applied art at the École de la rue Madame, and in 1923 found himself in charge of the Atelier Pomone (the interior design studio of the Parisian store Le Bon Marché). For the 1925 International Exhibition, he designed several pavilions, including the Pomone pavilion. In the pavilion of the Société des Artistes décorateurs: une Ambassade française, he designed the antechamber, whose walls were decorated with two large oil-on-canvas panels by René Crevel. From 1928, Paul Follot is a member of the board of directors of the English company Waring & Gillow, where he works with Serge Chermayeff on furniture design and interiors for the modern art department. In 1928, he decorated the Hôtel George-V in Paris. In 1930, Paul Follot was called to Thailand to fit out and decorate the four palaces of the King of Siam Prajadhipok Rama VII. Political and economic events leading to the monarch's abdication prevented him from completing his vast project. Plans and drawings remain. After 1931, he went back to work for himself, and in 1935 was commissioned to design a suite for the Normandie liner, to be presented at the Brussels World Fair. The style of the suite is sumptuous and in stark contrast to the austerity of modernism, which is seeking to overtake Art Deco. For the same liner, under commission from Pleyel, he creates a model of a rosewood piano on a single foot. This piano was presented at the 1937 Universal Exhibition in Paris. He designed the round carpet for the office of the president of the jury of the Union corporative des artisans français (UCFAF), whose production was entrusted to Tapis France Orient. Paul Follot retired to the South of France in 1939. He died in Paris in 1942.