While Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann and other Art Deco contemporaries like Pierre Chareau have been hailed as masters of 20th-century design, René Prou has undeservedly more or less fallen off the decorative-arts radar.
Prou was born in Nantes on July 14, 1887, and later trained at an industrial-design school, the École Bernard-Palissy in Paris, between 1902 and 1908. He started his career working for the interior design firms Gouffé and Schmit & Cie. At the latter, he was responsible for the decoration of the Paris residence of the ambassador of Paraguay. Prou began designing under his own name after World War I and never stopped.
Among other projects, Prou imagined a women’s boudoir and a girl’s bedroom for the prestigious French Embassy pavilion at the 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes in Paris — widely considered the start of the Art Deco period. Prou created vases for the Manufacture de Sèvres, a fireplace for the living room of the Villa Noailles and a tearoom at the Lido cabaret on the Champs-Elysées.
The designer was prolific. A promotional brochure for Prou’s eponymous design firm stated that he had designed 60 private residences and 30 banks between 1918 and 1930, and his career continued another 17 years after that.
Prou decorated some 500 train compartments — the most prestigious of which were for the Orient Express — and participated in the interior design of nine luxury ocean liners, including the Paris, the Île-de-France and the legendary Normandie. He was also extremely well connected. His friends included the Catalan painter Josep Maria Sert and fellow designer Louis Sognot; he collaborated on projects with Raymond Subes and Ivan da Silva Bruhns; and he went trout fishing in Normandy with Ruhlmann.
Prou was a devoted pedagogue, too, teaching more than 3,000 pupils at the École nationale supérieure des Arts Décoratifs over two decades, among them Charlotte Perriand and the postwar modernist designers Pierre Guariche and Alain Richard.
Prou’s output included sparks of innovation. He covered the floors of ocean liners with patchwork carpets made of linoleum, for example, and produced some strikingly modern-looking metal chairs. Yet much of his work was more traditional, regularly incorporating typical Art Deco geometric motifs and luxurious wood paneling. A book published in 2018 on Prou’s life and career has given new, and well-deserved, prominence to the influential designer.
Find vintage René Prou furniture on 1stDibs.
Rene Prou Silver Leaf Iron Scroll Coffee Table
By René Prou
Located in West Palm Beach, FL
This coffee table is an interesting piece and could be a good addition to any home or collection. It has a unique design, very ornate and intricate scrollwork, as well as a replaced ...
Iron, Silver Leaf
Rene Prou Low Bronze Table
By René Prou
Located in Philadelphia, PA
French Forties Art Deco low table by Rene Prou in bronze with original white glass top. Measures: 32” wide x 18” deep x 18” high. René Prou (1889-1948) A decorator as well as furniture designer, Rene Prou was born in Nantes and educated in Paris. He studied at the Ecole Bernard-Palissy in Paris and shortly thereafter joined the design house, Gouffé. By 1912 he had become their chief designer and was being called the first decorator of the modern taste (gout moderne). His varied design career included: 1922 oceanliner Paris 1922 – Paris to Deauville train (aka Train Bleu) 1923 – showed at the Salon des Artistes Decorateurs 1924 oceanliner de Grasse 1925 – with Eric Bagge...
Bronze
French Mid-Century Modern Round Gilt Iron Coffee Table by Rene Prou, 1940
By René Prou
Located in New York, NY
An elegant and timeless round French Mid-Century Modern Neoclassical cocktail table by Rene Prou with stunning, delicately hand-hammered tapering legs. The legs and frame are delicat...
$18,500
Rene Prou Table in Rosewood
By René Prou
Located in Philadelphia, PA
French Art Deco low side/coffee table, circa 1935 by Rene Prou, in rosewood. Measures: 32" diameter x 21" high. RENE PROU (1889-1948) A decorator as well as furniture designer, Rene Prou was born in Nantes and educated in Paris. He studied at the Ecole Bernard-Palissy in Paris and shortly thereafter joined the design house, Gouffé. By 1912 he had become their chief designer and was being called the first decorator of the modern taste (gout moderne). Prou's varied career included: 1922 oceanliner Paris 1922 – Paris to Deauville train (aka Train Bleu) 1923 – showed at the Salon des Artistes Decorateurs 1924 oceanliner de Grasse 1925 – with Eric Bagge...
Rosewood
Mid-Century Modern Coffee Table by Osvaldo Borsani, Italy, 1940s
By Osvaldo Borsani
Located in Piacenza, Italy
Wood and glass coffee table attributed to Osvaldo Borsani. Elegant low table with peculiar shape composed by a circular top and a unique base all realized in glass and finely decora...
Glass, Wood
Pair of Art Deco End Tables by Rene Prou
By René Prou
Located in Bridgewater, CT
Pair of French Art Deco side tables by Rene Prou (1889-1947), in sycamore maple wood, created circa 1930, stamped.
Maple
$5,400
H 22.05 in W 14.18 in D 14.18 in
French Art Deco Sycamore End Tables attributed to René Prou circa 1940
By René Prou
Located in CA, CA
French pair of nightstands attributed to René Prou in sycamore with wide curving body and curved legs. The tops are finished with mirrors that are slightly oxidized, giving them a wo...
Sycamore
French Wrought Iron Gold Coffee Table Rene Drouet, 1940’s
By René Drouet
Located in Hastings, GB
An exceptional coffee table in gilt wrought iron with distressed mirror plate top by the renowned designer Rene Drouet 1899 -1993. The heavy wrought iron base with ring details and visible bole beneath the gilt on the legs and edges, still coupled with its original mirror plate, this sought after coffee table is absolutely stunning to look at, and of super proportions. Rene Drouet Starting his design life as a student at l’Ecole Boulle in Paris, Drouet then took up an apprenticeship with master designer Maurice Dufrene at Galeries Lafayette, followed by a period of time at Decoration Interieure Mobilier and then on to the studio that was run by Jean Domin. Taking the skills and experience gained during these years as an apprentice, Drouet went on to design and create furniture and install complete interiors, including the apartment of Charles Boyer...
Iron, Wrought Iron
Vintage French Coffee Table; Iron and Marble, Mid-Century Modern
Located in Austin, TX
Coffee table from France with a square marble top in cream tones. The marble is supported by an iron base with an x-shaped stretcher holding the four legs together. The structure is ...
Marble, Iron
A pair of Rene Prou Wrought iron side table
By René Prou
Located in London, GB
A rare pair of Rene Prou Wrought iron side table
Wrought Iron
Midcentury Milo Baughman Style Low Burl Wood Coffee Table
By Milo Baughman
Located in Brooklyn, NY
A beautiful vintage modern burl coffee table designed in the style of Milo Baughman. A convenient rectangular design with gorgeous wood grain ...
Burl
Gilt Wrought Iron and Glass Top Coffee Table circa 1940
By René Prou
Located in CA, CA
Gilt Wrought Iron and Glass Top Coffee Table circa 1940. This coffee table with it's undulating form and scrolling legs. personifies French 1940's aesthetics tp perfection.
Wrought Iron
$33,000
H 16.15 in W 30.32 in D 45.28 in
Levitaz Vela Coffee Table, Sculptural Cast Bronze Table, Contemporary
By Katz Studio
Located in San Jose del Cabo, BCS
Vela Coffee Table, from the Levitaz Collection, embodies contemporary design through its unique marriage of material and form. Cast in bronze, this coffee table takes on the illusion...
Bronze
Gilt-Metal side table and marble top in the style of René Prou
By René Prou
Located in Linkebeek, BE
Gilt-Metal side table and marble top in the style of René Prou Wrought iron - Coffee Table Measures : 80x45cm H:55cm Wear consistent with age and use. Minor Losses : chipped marble t...
Marble, Metal
Rene Drouet Gilt Forged Iron Coffee Table
By René Drouet
Located in Philadelphia, PA
French 1940s Art Deco coffee table in gilt forged iron by Rene Drouet. Takes glass inset top.
Iron
Low Round Tricolumn Coffee Table by MSJ Furniture Studio
Located in Vancouver, BC
Our Tri-Column Coffee Table is made from solid beech in our Vancouver based furniture studio. Inspired by columns left behind by ancient Greek and Roman architecture. Consisting of ...
Beech
French Gilt Wrought Iron Cocktail Table by Rene Prou
By René Prou
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Stunning and elegant, this Rene Prou Scroll coffee table is a timeless piece. While designed in the ca. 1940's the table is still relevant and sophisticated today. Hand Forged wrought iron that has been gold leafed, making it chic for any living space, bedroom or formal living room. Much the same as Jean Charles Moreau...
Iron, Gold Leaf
Sold
H 18.12 in W 34.65 in D 19.69 in
René Prou, Wrought and Hammered Iron Coffee Table with Faux-Antique Mirror Top
By René Prou
Located in Marcq-en-Barœul, Hauts-de-France
This unusual coffee table from 1940s is made of wrought and hammered iron. It has a faux-antique mirror on top which is new and has been remade in the style of the old mercury mirror...
Wrought Iron
René Prou Fantastic Mirror Coffee Table, circa 1940
By René Prou
Located in Saint-Ouen, FR
René Prou fantastic mirror table, circa 1940
Metal
Rond Table by Rene Prou
By René Prou
Located in Auribeau sur Siagne, FR
Game tabel and coffe table
Travertine, Wrought Iron
Small Painted Metal Cocktail Table by René Prou
By René Prou
Located in Montreal, QC
Whimsical painted metal and glass two-tier cocktail table by Rene Prou.
Metal