Vitra Em Table
21st Century and Contemporary German Mid-Century Modern Dining Room Tables
Steel
Recent Sales
20th Century German Dining Room Sets
Vintage 1950s French Mid-Century Modern Dining Room Tables
Sheet Metal
Early 2000s German Mid-Century Modern Dining Room Tables
Metal
People Also Browsed
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Blown Glass
2010s South African Minimalist Night Stands
Poplar, Burl
2010s American Mid-Century Modern Dining Room Tables
Aluminum
Vintage 1970s French Post-Modern Sofas
Fabric
Vintage 1930s French Art Deco Armchairs
Wood, Fabric, Upholstery, Beech, Lacquer
Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Lounge Chairs
Brass
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Blown Glass
21st Century and Contemporary American Mid-Century Modern Table Lamps
Brass, Metal
20th Century Italian Modern Dining Room Tables
Oak
2010s British Scandinavian Modern Ottomans and Poufs
Sheepskin, Oak
2010s American Ottomans and Poufs
Wool, Jute
Vintage 1960s Finnish Mid-Century Modern Sideboards
Teak
21st Century and Contemporary Portuguese Modern Center Tables
Wood
Vintage 1970s Swiss Mid-Century Modern Dining Room Chairs
Beech, Plywood
Vintage 1960s French Mid-Century Modern Cabinets
Wood, Mahogany
Vintage 1970s French Modern Screens and Room Dividers
Metal
Jean Prouvé for sale on 1stDibs
Engineer and metalsmith, self-taught designer and architect, manufacturer and teacher, Jean Prouvé was a key force in the evolution of 20th-century French design, introducing a style that combined economy of means and stylistic chic. Along with his frequent client and collaborator Le Corbusier and others, Prouvé, using his practical skills and his understanding of industrial materials, steered French modernism onto a path that fostered principled, democratic approaches to architecture and design.
Prouvé was born in Nancy, a city with a deep association with the decorative arts. (It is home, for example, to the famed Daum crystal manufactory.) His father, Victor Prouvé, was a ceramist and a friend and co-worker of such stars of the Art Nouveau era as glass artist Émile Gallé and furniture maker Louis Majorelle. Jean Prouvé apprenticed to a blacksmith, studied engineering, and produced ironwork for such greats of French modernism as the architect Robert Mallet-Stevens. In 1931, he opened the firm Atelier Prouvé. There, he perfected techniques in folded metal that resulted in his Standard chair (1934) and other designs aimed at institutions such as schools and hospitals.
During World War II, Prouvé was a member of the French Resistance, and his first postwar efforts were devoted to designing metal pre-fab housing for those left homeless by the conflict. In the 1950s, Prouvé would unite with Charlotte Perriand and Pierre Jeanneret (Le Corbusier’s cousin) on numerous design projects. In 1952, he and Perriand and artist Sonia Delaunay created pieces for the Cité Internationale Universitaire foundation in Paris, which included the colorful, segmented bookshelves that are likely Prouvé’s and Perriand’s best-known designs. The pair also collaborated on 1954’s Antony line of furniture, which again, like the works on 1stDibs, demonstrated a facility for combining material strength with lightness of form.
Prouvé spent his latter decades mostly as a teacher. His work has recently won new appreciation: in 2008 the hotelier Andre Balazs purchased at auction (hammer price: just under $5 million) the Maison Tropicale, a 1951 architectural prototype house that could be shipped flat-packed, and was meant for use by Air France employees in the Congo. Other current Prouvé collectors include Brad Pitt, Larry Gagosian, Martha Stewart and the fashion designer Marc Jacobs.
The rediscovery of Jean Prouvé — given not only the aesthetic and practical power of his designs but also the social conscience his work represents — marks one of the signal “good” aspects of collecting vintage 20th-century design. An appreciation of Prouvé is an appreciation of human decency.
Find antique Jean Prouvé chairs, tables, chaise longues and other furniture on 1stDibs.