Screen, wood with red and black lacquer, silver leaf, and composite decoration, Eileen Gray, probably France, ca. 1923

The wooden screen is composed of eight separate panels, held together by brass hinges.
Eight-fold Screen: wood with red and black lacquer, silver leaf, and composite decoration, brass hinges. The decorated side of the screen in lacquered in black whilst the reverse is finished in red. Geometric designs in silver foil were applied in the last few layers.

Given by Prunella Clough

Eileen Gray was one of the first Westerners to practice lacquer work learning the technique in1906 from Seizo Sugawara in Paris, a Japanese artisan from Northern Japan. Gray apprenticed herself to Sugawara for six years before showing her work publicly at the Salon Des Artistes Decorateurs in 1912.

This screen was made by Eileen Gray around 1923 and was in her apartment on Rue Bonaparte in Paris until her death in 1976. Prunella Clough remembered that the screen was in two parts in the flat of her aunt (Eileen Gray) and recalled, the parts were never put together (in a letter to Simon Jervis, Acquisition file). Although the screen was originally created in 1923 it is likely that one of the panels was re-worked at some point (possibly in the late 1960s or early 1970s) by Prunella Clough under the supervision of Eileen Gray.

By the time Eileen Gray was born in 1878, ‘Japonisme’ – the influence of the arts of Japan on those of the West was well established. From the 1850s, after two hundred years of self-imposed seclusion, Japan opened its harbours for the first time to foreign ships. Japanese objects quickly entered Europe and became hugely popular. In addition, collectors, writers, and art critics undertook many voyages to Japan in the 1870s and 1880s, leading to the publication of articles about Japanese aesthetics. Eileen Gray was the first Westerner to practice Asian lacquerwork, learning the technique from Northern Japanese artisan Seizo Sugawara in Paris from 1906. (See Caroline Constant, Eileen Gray (London; Phaidon Press, 2009), p. 9).

Gray was producing lacquer screens as early as 1912. She displayed a blue and red laquer panel, entitled 'Le Magicien de la Nuit', at the VIII Salon de la Societe des Artistes Decorateurs in 1913. Gray’s laquer work proved successful; with articles published, sales of her work and commissions. After seeing Gray’s work at the Salon in 1913, Jacques Doucet went on to purchase and commisson lacquer work by Gray. (See Peter Adam, Eileen Gray: Her Life and Work, London: Thames and Hudson, 2009, p. 40 – 43.)

In 1922 Eileen Gray opened a gallery, Galerie ‘Jean Désert’ at 217 Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré where she exhibited and sold her work. At this time Gray also maintained a workshop devoted mostly to furniture and lacquer at 11, rue Genègéaud.

This screen was made by Eileen Gray around 1923 and was in her apartment on Rue Bonaparte in Paris until her death in 1976. Prunella Clough remembered that the screen was in two parts in the flat of her aunt (Eileen Gray) and recalled, the parts were never put together (in a letter to Simon Jervis, Acquisition file). Although the screen was originally created in 1928 it is likely that one of the panels was re-worked at some point (possibly in the late 1960s or early 1970s) by Prunella Clough under the supervision of Eileen Gray.

This screen was made by Eileen Gray around 1923 and was in her apartment on Rue Bonaparte in Paris until her death in 1976. Irish born Gray moved to Paris in 1902 where she spent most of her life as an designer. It was in Paris that she established her reputation as successful practitioner of lacquerwork, having studied with Northern Japanese artisan Seizo Sugawara from 1906. Gray exhibited her lacquerwork at the VIII Salon des Societe des Artistes Decorateurs in 1913, where she acquired notable and influential patrons such as the couturier Jacques Doucet. This screen shows Gray’s move away from decorative symbolism towards a more architectural abstract style.

W.40:1 to 8-1977