Ruhlmann

Moderneage is proud to offer re-creations of the French Art Deco Master...Ruhlmann. As far as deco goes Ruhlmann is without peer. It was not unusual for a single piece of furniture to take a solid year to produce and even then could cost as much as an average home. Luckily today that is not the case through Moderneage. Please read and look at some of the newly re-created designs inspired by Rulmann. There is no greater status symbol in deorating than to own a piece of furniture by Ruhlmann.

I hope you will find this text enlightening and informative, below is a historical perspective and items within our line. For custom pieces please email us and let us know how we can serve you.

Emile-Jacques Ruhlmann was born in Paris on August 28, 1879 to Alsatian parents that owned a painting and contracting firm. Ruhlmann spent most of his youth learning his father's trade during which time he made contact with several young architects and designers. These contacts would be Ruhlmann's first look into the world of furniture. In 1907 upon his father's death, Ruhlmann took over the family business. Around 1910, a newly married Ruhlmann had his first experience designing furniture for their new apartment. This was also the first year in which he exhibited his furniture publicly. In 1919 he founded a separate interior design company with Pierre Laurent; the company designed everything from wallpaper to rugs, light fixtures and furniture.

His early designs reflected the Art Nouveau influence popular in France at the turn of the century. Later his influences could be traced to architects and designers creating innovative furniture in Vienna around the time of the First World War.

Although his very early work was quite heavy, apparently influenced by the Arts & Crafts Movement, by 1920 Ruhlmann made clear his distain for the movement. In a magazine interview in 1920 he succinctly stated his case: "A clientele of artists, intellectuals and connoisseurs of modest means is very congenial, but they are not in a position to pay for all the research, the experimentation, the testing that is needed to develop a new design. Only the very rich can pay for what is new and they alone can make it fashionable. Fashions don't start among the common people. Along with satisfying a desire for change, fashion's real purpose is to display wealth." He further stated: "Whether you want it or not, a style is just a craze. And fashion does not come up from humble backgrounds."

His strongest inspiration may have come from the classical design elements and craftsmanship ideals found in 18th century furniture. Ruhlmann would later shape these same ideals into what he called his precious pieces. These pieces, most often occurring between 1918 and 1925 were his favorites. They made use of the rarest woods such as Macassar ebony, Brazilian rosewood, and amboyna burl, usually in combination with each other. Most of the forms were very simple, making use of gentle, almost imperceptible curves. These pieces were most often embellished with ivory; used for handles, dentil, feet, and inlay. The ivory brought a static sense of control to the pieces that made them unique, timeless and extremely elegant in form.

Contrary to popular thought, Ruhlmann did not work with his hands and had no formal training in the making of cabinets or furniture. In fact, all of his work was done by outside cabinet shops until 1923 when he assembled his own cabinetmaking shop.

By 1927, Ruhlmann's shop had grown to two locations employing 27 master cabinetmakers, four finishers, a dozen upholsterers, a few apprentice cabinetmakers and twenty-five draftsmen. While collaborating with his cabinetmakers, he constantly pushed them to not be confined by their craft. He would not accept that any detail of his design could not be executed. Rather he made his cabinetmakers start over and over until they got it right, when he exclaimed "Don't touch a thing, it's perfect."

Ruhlmann's work far exceeded the costly materials and consummate workmanship that he touted. Although his pieces were exorbitant in price, Ruhlmann admitted to a journalist: "Each piece of furniture that I deliver costs me on average 20 or 25 percent more than what I charged for it. Over the past trading year (1923) I have lost 300,000 francs net. The reason for me to resist, to persist in creating furniture that costs me money instead of being profitable, is that I still have faith in the future, and that I run another business with safe return, and whose profits fill up the holes that I am digging in the moon."

Ruhlmann's command over design and mastery of material combinations yielded pieces of furniture that are historically incomparable. His formal elegance made much of the work of his contemporaries appear bizarre in form, and garish with respect to materials and color.

Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes...
At the same time that Ruhlmann was perfecting furniture making techniques, the French Société des Artistes Décorateurs, founded in 1900, was trying to encourage high standards of design and production in France through its annual exhibitions at the Salon d'Automne. The French government agreed to sponsor an international exhibition of decorative arts to be held in 1915 to further promote France's position in the field. Because of the First World War, this was postponed until 1925 and was called the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes, the exhibition that gave Art Deco its name. Held from April to October, it attracted more than six million visitors. Entry for exhibitors was by invitation only and all work had to be modern in design, not based on or derived from historic styles.

Ruhlmann had several pavilions at the exhibition in which he used exotic work from other artists and designers to provide beautiful and opulent settings as showcases for his own furniture. For example, in his Pavilion d'un Collectionneur, an oil painting by Jean Dupas, Les Perruches, of heroic proportions depicting female nudes with parakeets, hung above the fireplace. The pavilion's exterior featured metalwork by Edgar Brandt and a panel by sculptor Joseph Besnard. The centrepiece of the pavilion was a grand piano designed by Ruhlmann and made from such exotic materials as amboyna wood and Macassar ebony. The V&A's exhibition will recreate this influential pavilion at the forthcoming Art Deco exhibition and will bring together a group of important works exhibited including Jean Dupas' famous painting.

When examining Ruhlmann's furniture, take notice of the subtle use of grain. Ruhlmann was careful not to allow the figure of the wood to vie for attention with the form of the furniture. His two favorite woods; Macassar ebony and amboyna burl both create soft but striking background patterns, without focusing attention on the wood itself. This allowed the veneers to support the design details instead of competing with them.

All Ruhlmann's furniture was handmade by specialist craftsmen. Right up until 1923 Ruhlmann was using outside cabinetmakers for his furniture. In that year he started his own cabinetmaking shop employing people highly skilled in carpentry, upholstery, mirror grinding, veneering and inlaying.

Even while the furniture was being made by other cabinetmaking businesses, his quality control was superb as the techniques used produced pieces so flawless that Ruhlmann's furniture has been favourably compared to the finest 18th century pieces. Ruhlmann refused to admit that something could not be done. He wanted his designs executed, no matter how difficult. His craftsmen were expected to keep trying until they achieved his vision. For all its elegance, the furniture was designed to be used and to be comfortable. Form and design served to enhance the use of the furniture.

The company never catered for the mass market. One of his pavilions at the 1925 exhibition might have been called 'Pavilion for a Collector' but rich collectors were the ones that he had in mind. He believed that fashion started amongst the rich elite because they were the ones who could afford the costs of experimentation. He further believed that the whole purpose of fashion was for the display of wealth. In fact Ruhlmann claimed that, in spite of the high prices he charged, he lost money on each piece of furniture because of the expensive materials used and the amount of time and effort that went into each piece. He could only continue to make his superb pieces because he had another business that made a profit.

When Ruhlmann learned that he was terminally ill in 1933, he determined to forever protect the name that he had build over a twenty-year period. In his will, he stated that the company was to complete the orders that were currently in-house, and then he ordered the dissolution of the company.

Jacques-Emile Ruhlmann's reputation as the supreme furniture designer of the 20th century has survived intact. His furniture may be seen in the permanent collections of, amongst others, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.