PIERRE LEGRAIN | TWO STUDIES FOR A DESK BLOTTER

Collection of Pierre Legrain, Paris

Thence by descent

Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Walker, Paris

Collection of Robin Symes, London

Sotheby's New York, An Important Collection of 20th Century Furniture by Pierre Legrain, Eileen Gray and Eyre de Lanux formed by Robin Symes including pieces designed for Jacques Doucet and original drawings by Pierre Legrain, May 6, 1989, lot 15

Collection of Marsha Miro, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan

Christie's New York, December 9, 2014, lot 548

Pierre-Emile Legrain 1889-1929, exh. cat., Galerie Jacques de Vos, Paris, 1996, p. 123 (for a desk blotter based on this design)

Pierre Legrain was a multidisciplinary artist known for his avant-garde furniture and highly decorative book-bindings. Legrain had perfected the art of creating small and luxurious accessories, much like the subject of the present lot, under the patronage of Jacques Doucet throughout the 1910s and early 1920s. One example of a desk blotter based on this design is known to exist and was made specifically for art dealer César Mange de Hauke, who collected works by Legrain’s contemporaries like Jean Dunand, André Mare and Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann. As part of his creative process, Legrain created artful preparatory sketches that incorporated a variety of colors, materials and geometric patterns imbued with Cubist influences. The highly graphic approach to this preparatory design and the inclusion of silver and gold foil on the present watercolor sketch, demonstrating the artist’s concern for texture and for the composition of the final product, contribute to making these two drawings outstanding modernist works of art.