Louis Majorelle

Louis Majorelle (Toul, September 26th 1859 – Nancy, January 15th 1926) was a cabinetmaker and Décorateur French Art nouveau of the movement of the École of Nancy from which he was also vice-president.

Youth

In 1861, his/her father, Auguste Majorelle (1825 - 1879), which was itself an originator and manufacturing pieces of furniture, moved with his family of Toul to Nancy. It is there that Louis finished his initial studies there before going to Paris in 1877 for two years in the École of the Art schools of Paris under the teaching of Jean-François Millet. With died of his father, it stopped his course and returns to Nancy to supervise the factory of family Faïence and piece of furniture. That occupied it for the remainder of its life.

The April 7th 1885, Majorelle married with Marie Léonie Jane Kretz, the girl of the director of the municipal theaters of Nancy. Their only child, Jacques Majorelle, which will become the painter of the Atlas, was born the March 7th 1886 in Nancy.

Management of the family firm

The building of the Majorelle company was designed by the architect “School of Nancy” Lucien Weissenburger (1860 – 1929) and was located at 6, rue du Vieil-Aître in the western part of Nancy. In the years 1880, Majorelle manufactured copies of pieces of furniture to the style Louis XV, which it exposed in 1894 to the Exposure of Art Decorative and Industrial of Nancy but it was influenced by the manufacturer of glasses and pieces of furniture Emile Galle (1846 – 1904) to give to its production a new direction. Its work is characterized by the use of elements naturalists in its forms and its Marqueterie S. Démarrée in the Nineties, the production of the pieces of furniture of Majorelle, embellished by interlacings, takes its source in nature: plants in stems, water lilies, thistles, dragonflies. To the turning of 1900, it added a workshop of forging mill for the craftsmen in order to produce handles and hinges in the spirit of the fluid lines of its work of joinery. Its workshop was also responsible for the realization of the forged balconies, the slopes of staircase and the details external of many buildings of Nancy with the change of century. It evolves to simpler forms and more stripped shortly after its great success with the World Fair of 1900 and launches out in parallel in a series production, which enables him to enrich its catalog quickly. While often collaborating with the glassmakers of Nancy, the Brothers Daum, it helped to make city one of the European center of the Art nouveau. With the apogee of the Beautiful time, with the World Fair), works of Majorelle triumphed and provided him international customers. In 1910, Majorelle had opened shops for its pieces of furniture with Nancy, Paris, Lyon and Lille.

Majorelle and the School of Nancy

Initiated with the art nouveau by Emile Galle as of 1894, Majorelle became one of the founder members of the School of Nancy , in February 1901, alternatively known like the provincial Alliance of industries of art , representing a group of artists, architects, critics art and industrialists of the Lorraine who decided to work in a collaborative way with a prevalence for the art nouveau. Carried out by Emile Galle (until his death in 1904 then by Victor Proven), they gathered for various reasons, in particular to make sure of an high level of quality in the decorative Arts in the area where the principal manufacturers were. Majorelle was one of the Vice-président S of the group since its foundation, the remainder throughout all the School of Nancy and he was regarded as one of the leaders. For a great part, him and the other members endeavoured to promote the work of Lorraine decorative artists by the defense of the installation of a school for the industrial arts, their participation in the important living rooms (just as while organizing their) and by their efforts collaboratifs on individual elements and buildings, for the majority with the style Art nouveau. They also facilitated the realization of a unit as for art and architecture coming from the Lorraine ones. Majorelle is without question one of the internationally recognized figures of the group which could always be found on the living rooms in which it exposed. Its connections with the Parisian circles of art also made it possible to ensure the reputation of the Lorraine artists in the French capital. Nevertheless, the School of Nancy was often with court of money and the formal artistic co-operation among its members slowly disintegrated during the First World War.

The Majorelle Villa

See also: Villa Majorelle

In 1898, Louis Majorelle entrusts to the architect Henri Sauvage the development of the plans of its house of Nancy. Built in 1901 - 1902, by Lucien Weissenburger, the Majorelle Villa (or Villa Jika , according to the initial ones of its wife: Jeanne Kretz ) results from a collaboration from the principal artists from the École from Nancy and Parisian Art nouveau.

It will be the first house entirely of style Art nouveau of Nancy; the villa indeed presents all the elements of the movement, as well in its outsides as in its interior.

Post-war period

The productions of Majorelle continue in the same style after the Great War in spite of the change of mode towards the Art Déco. With its death, its business is taken again by Alfred Levy.

See too

Villa Majorelle
List of famous cabinetmakers
List of pieces of furniture and objets d'art

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