The Ever Humble Eileen Gray As The Modern Stylist Of The 20th Century

Considered as a finest pioneer of the Modern design movement Eileen Gray is an architect, designer and pioneer of the Modern design movement. Her ideas for furniture exceeded the gatherings of traditional furniture design and helped covered the way for modern furniture design.

Born on August 1878 by the town of Enniscorthy, Ireland, Kathleen Eileen Moray Gray was the youngest offspring of the well-to-do Scottish-Irish Gray clan, Eileen Gray learned at the Slade School of Fine Art in the University College – London but later moved to the Académie Julian and the Académie Colarossi in Paris in Paris, France when her father passed away in 1900. Gray stayed in Paris until 1905, where she moved to London, England to attend for her ill mother. During her break in London, Gray learned lacquer-work under the tutelage of Seizo Sugawara, a Japanese lacquer-work establisher working at the Exposition Universelle in Paris.

Eileen Gray first begun her profession as a lacquer artist, then as a furniture designer and eventually as an architect. Gray used five strenuous years learning lacquer-work from Sugawara, even to the time where she acquired a excruciating “lacquer disease”. Regardless of her setbacks, Gray yet persevered and displayed her works for the first time at the Salon des Artistes Décorateurs in 1913

Possibly what most persons recognize Eileen Gray for today is that of her work at Rue de Lota subsurbs in Paris. In 1917, Gray was appointed by Mathieu Levy to redecorate the interior of her apartment in Rue de Lota. The project, which lasted until 1921, saw Gray designing everything from the rugs on the floor to the decorative “Block Screen” lacquered wall sections. It was also during the Rue de Lota project where Gray presented some of her now-established furniture works, including the Bibendum chair, the Serpent chair, and the Biboquet table.

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