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Jean Touret Furniture

French

The stark brutalist furniture and decor created by French artist Jean Touret and his collective of artisans during the 20th century is ripe for a comeback, and it is today drawing the attention of galleries and collectors.

Touret was the founder of Les Artisans de Marolles, a collective of furniture makers based in the Loire Valley in the postwar era. The rustic but exquisitely proportioned pieces they produced included benches made from gouged wood, a wrought-iron sconce in the form of a cockerel, three-legged stools with seats carved to hug the body and a series of exceptional credenzas whose doors were sculpted by Touret himself, with themes like the seven deadly sins and pastoral life. 

Touret’s talents were not deployed only on tables and lighting. From the mid-1960s until shortly before his death, in 2004, he earned his living largely through ecclesiastical commissions, the most famous of which was the altarpiece at Notre-Dame de Paris. Installed in 1989 and destroyed in the fire that swept through the cathedral in 2019, the work consisted of a brass chest clad with bronze panels depicting the evangelists and the four great prophets.

More than anything, Touret was a sculptor, although a rather unsuccessful one during his lifetime. He rarely exhibited, sold next to nothing and was never able to afford a heated studio.

Touret was born in 1916 and largely brought up in Le Mans, in western France. He worked in the legal department of a local insurance company before fighting in World War II, during which he spent five years as a prisoner of war on the German–Czechoslovakian border. There, he had his first real contact with wood while being forced to work as a lumberjack. 

At the end of hostilities, he returned to France, settled in Marolles with his wife, Odile, and declared that he would become an artist (he had previously taken evening classes with a painter in Le Mans). In 1950, the manager of the Château de Chambord commissioned him to create a number of sculptures of deer and wild boars for the pavilions in the château’s park. That same year, Touret established Les Artisans de Marolles. For him, it was more a social venture than an artistic one. As industrialization expanded in postwar France, the village’s craftsmen found themselves in need of work.

The collective’s founding members were a basket maker, a potter, a blacksmith and a carpenter. The last, Émile Leroy, continued his work as a coffin maker while participating in the group. Touret acted as artistic director, imposing his aesthetic vision through direct discussions with the craftsmen in their workshops rather than through drawings. Over the years, the collective’s output was regularly exhibited in both the Marolles village hall and the more magnificent setting of the nearby Château Royal de Blois. Certain items were also stocked by the Primavera boutique in Paris, an offshoot of the department store Le Printemps.

To respond to the increasing demand, craftsmen from other villages were brought in, and as their numbers rose, so did tensions and disputes. Uninterested in ego management, Touret increasingly took a back seat, moving to a village on the other bank of the Loire in 1963 before officially quitting the following year. Although Les Artisans de Marolles continued to exist until 1970, the aesthetic quality of its production took a marked turn for the worse.

Touret then stopped creating secular furniture altogether. In 1965, he met a young chaplain at the Sorbonne, Jean-Marie Lustiger, who went on to become not only his most indefatigable supporter but also a cardinal and the archbishop of Paris. It was Lustiger who initiated most of Touret’s commissions for the Church, whether monumental sculptures of Christ, liturgical furniture or the Notre-Dame de Paris altarpiece.

Until recently, Touret’s furniture and decor had been forgotten for decades. Its rediscovery is largely due to dealers like Benoist F. Drut, at Maison Gerard in New York, and Yves and Victor Gastou, in Paris, who were attracted to its elemental forms and handcrafted spirit. An exhibition in 2022 at the Galerie Gastou posthumously shed light on the work

Find vintage Jean Touret benches, floor lamps, tables and other furniture on 1stDibs.

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Creator: Jean Touret
20th Century French Metal Mesh Panels Screen by Atelier de Marolles, Jean Touret
By Atelier Marolles, Jean Touret
Located in West Palm Beach, FL
A vintage Mid-Century modern French room diver made of hand crafted wrought iron designed by Jean Touret and produced by Atelier de Marolles, in good condition. The detailed Brutalis...
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Mid-20th Century French Mid-Century Modern Jean Touret Furniture

Materials

Metal, Wrought Iron

20th century French Jean Touret Wrought Iron Chandelier, 1950s
By Jean Touret
Located in LEGNY, FR
Wrought iron chandelier dating from the 1950s made by Jean Touret for the Marolles workshops in France. Rooster represented on the top of the chandelier, very beautiful iron work. S...
Category

1950s French Vintage Jean Touret Furniture

Materials

Wrought Iron

Ateliers Marolles by Jean Touret Table Lamp Wrought Iron
By Jean Touret, Atelier Marolles
Located in Chicago, IL
French Midcentury table lamp by Ateliers de Marolles. Created by Jean Touret, artistic director and Henri VION, ironworker, France, ca.1950. Tripod table lamp with rooster singing pa...
Category

1950s French Mid-Century Modern Vintage Jean Touret Furniture

Materials

Wrought Iron

Wrought iron rooster lamp by Jean Touret / les Ateliers de Marolles, 1950's
By Atelier Marolles, Jean Touret
Located in VÉZELAY, FR
Wrought iron rooster lamp, horseshoe-shaped lamp base by Jean Touret / Les Ateliers de Marolles. Mid-Century Modern, France, Circa 1950 By ...
Category

1950s French Folk Art Vintage Jean Touret Furniture

Materials

Metal, Wrought Iron

Ateliers de Marolles, Jean Touret, Midcentury Wrought-iron Chandelier, ca.1950
By Jean Touret
Located in Saint-Amans-des-Cots, FR
French Midcentury chandelier by Ateliers de Marolles, created by Jean TOURET, artistic director and Henri VION, ironworker, France, ca.1950. Gothic chandelier with rooster singing p...
Category

1950s French Mid-Century Modern Vintage Jean Touret Furniture

Materials

Wrought Iron

Rare Tripod Stools by Jean Touret for Ateliers Marolles
By Atelier Marolles, Jean Touret
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Hand gouged oak stools by Jean Touret for Ateliers Marolles. Made in France circa 1960s. Priced per item. Jean Touret moved to Pezay, a rural area near Marolles, in 1946. While ther...
Category

1950s French Vintage Jean Touret Furniture

Materials

Oak

Jean Touret, Lamp in Iron Wrought, 1950s
By Jean Touret
Located in Saint-Ouen, FR
Jean Touret, in the style of. Wrought iron lamp, geometric and circular shape, black color. French work realized in the 1950s.
Category

Mid-20th Century French Jean Touret Furniture

Materials

Iron

Pair Jean Touret Ateliers Marolles France Iron Floor Lamps Girouette Hand Forged
By Jean Touret
Located in Bridgehampton, NY
Pair of handcrafted pair of cast and wrought iron by Ateliers de Marolles under the direction of Jean Touret. The studio in South France designed and crafted lighting and furniture during the 1950s. This pair has a rooster weather vane motifs and the cardinal points...
Category

Mid-20th Century French Mid-Century Modern Jean Touret Furniture

Materials

Wrought Iron

Jean Touret & the Artisans of Marolles Center Table, France, circa 1960
By Atelier Marolles, Jean Touret
Located in New York, NY
Stamped "Marolles." Edition of 20 Jean Touret moved to Pezay, a rural area near Marolles, in 1946. While there, he became highly conscious of the uncertainty that Industrial development would bring to the future of the local craftsmen. Believing strongly in the value of the artisan...
Category

Mid-20th Century French Organic Modern Jean Touret Furniture

Materials

Elm

Rooster Floor Lamp in Wrought Iron by Jean Touret for Ateliers Marolles, 1950's
By Atelier Marolles, Jean Touret
Located in VÉZELAY, FR
Beautiful quadripod floor lamp depicting a rooster, in wrought and hammered iron. Mid-Century Modern, France, circa 1950-1960. By Jean Touret (1916-2004), French sculptor and d...
Category

1950s French Mid-Century Modern Vintage Jean Touret Furniture

Materials

Wrought Iron

Jean Touret & The Artisans of Marolles Pair of Candle Sconces, France circa 1960
By Atelier Marolles, Jean Touret
Located in New York, NY
Stamped: Marolles Jean Touret moved to Pezay, a rural area near Marolles, in 1946. While there, he became highly conscious of the uncertainty that Industrial development would bri...
Category

Mid-20th Century French Rustic Jean Touret Furniture

Materials

Oak

Jean and Sébastien Touret Brutalist Oak Bench, France, 1970s
By Jean Touret, Sébastien Touret
Located in Utrecht, NL
The term brutalism — which derives from the French word brut, meaning “raw” — was originally coined to describe an architectural style that emerged in the 1950s featuring monumental buildings, usually made of unornamented concrete, whose design was meant to project an air of strength and solidity. Similarly, in furniture design Brutalism inspired designers to create models with the same look of strength and style. This rare Jean & Sébastien Touret...
Category

1970s French Other Vintage Jean Touret Furniture

Materials

Oak

Jean Touret, Marolles Wrought-iron Tripodal Table Lamp, France, 1950-1955
By Atelier Marolles, Jean Touret
Located in New York, NY
Jean Touret moved to Pezay, a rural area near Marolles, in 1946. While there, he became highly conscious of the uncertainty that Industrial development would bring to the future of t...
Category

Mid-20th Century French Rustic Jean Touret Furniture

Materials

Wrought Iron

Jean Touret for the Marolles Workshop, Floor Lamp "Girouette"
By Jean Touret
Located in Nice, Cote d' Azur
Jean Touret (1916-2004) for the Marolles workshop, Four-light floor lamp model « Girouette », Wrought iron beaten with rooster decoration and under each light the initial of the four cardinal points, Tripod base, With four lampshades, Circa 1950, France. Measures : height 190.5 cm, width 41.91 cm, depth 55.88 cm. Jean Touret is a French sculptor, whose mainly religious work, uses wood and metals to achieve sometimes monumental sculptures (statuary, altars, organ buffets). His art that remains figurative but at the limit of abstraction, coincides with the movement back to the liturgical simplicity that Vatican II. Jean Touret is also known as designer. At the beginning of his career, in the Loir et Cher, he set up a craft cooperative "The Artisans de Marolles...
Category

1950s French Mid-Century Modern Vintage Jean Touret Furniture

Materials

Iron

Les Artisans De Marolles / Egg Cup Sculpture in Rattan and Oak, circa 1960
By Atelier Marolles, Jean Touret
Located in Saint-Ouen, FR
Les Artisans De Marolles under the artistic direction of Jean Touret Rare Zoomrphe sculpture "egg cups" representing a rooster in basketwork ...
Category

1960s French Brutalist Vintage Jean Touret Furniture

Materials

Rattan, Oak

French 1960s Dining Table by Jean Touret & the Artisans of Marolles
By Atelier Marolles, Jean Touret
Located in Long Island City, NY
Jean Touret & the Artisans of Marolles - A fine mid-century rectangular dining table with a wrought iron base that supports a solid oak top adorned with wrought iron nails.
Category

1960s French Mid-Century Modern Vintage Jean Touret Furniture

Materials

Wrought Iron

Jean Touret & The Artisans of Marolles, Rectangular Dining Table, circa 1960
By Atelier Marolles, Jean Touret
Located in New York, NY
Stamped "Marolles." Jean Touret moved to Pezay, a rural area near Marolles, in 1946. While there, he became highly conscious of the uncertainty that industrial development would bring to the future of the local craftsmen. Believing strongly in the value of the artisan...
Category

Mid-20th Century French Rustic Jean Touret Furniture

Materials

Wrought Iron

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Jean Touret furniture for sale on 1stDibs.

Jean Touret furniture are available for sale on 1stDibs. These distinctive items are frequently made of wood and are designed with extraordinary care. There are many options to choose from in our collection of Jean Touret furniture, although brown editions of this piece are particularly popular. Many of the original furniture by Jean Touret were created in the mid-century modern style in france during the 20th century. If you’re looking for additional options, many customers also consider furniture by Isabelle Faure, Philippe Cheverny, and Jean Royère. Prices for Jean Touret furniture can differ depending upon size, time period and other attributes — on 1stDibs, these items begin at $943 and can go as high as $80,000, while a piece like these, on average, fetch $8,000.

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