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.
$5,000 / set
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
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
$5,200 / set
H 18.5 in W 19 in D 19 in
Pair of Wrought Iron and Travertine 'Entretoise' Side Tables by Design Frères
By Mathieu Matégot, Design Frères
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Pair of wrought iron and travertine 'Entretoise' side tables by Design Frères. Chic pair of versatile side or end tables. Also great as a two-part coffee table. Indoor or outdoor use.
Travertine, Wrought Iron
Rene Prou Gilt Iron Coffee Table
By René Prou
Located in Philadelphia, PA
French Art Deco coffee table in gilt hand forged iron, by Rene Prou, circa 1930. 44” long x 26” wide x 23” high with glass. Frame: 41.5” long x 21” wide. 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 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...
Iron
$4,600 / set
H 20.5 in W 25 in D 17.25 in
Pair of 'Diagramme' Wrought Iron and Travertine Side Tables by Design Frères
By Design Frères, Paul Dupré-Lafon
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Pair of 'Diagramme' wrought iron and travertine side tables by Design Frères. Lower bar is 4.5" inches from the floor.
Travertine, Wrought Iron
$15,875 / set
H 28 in Dm 14 in
Pair of French Modern Neoclassical Wrought Iron Side Tables, Jean-Michel Frank
By Jean-Michel Frank, Gilbert Poillerat
Located in New York, NY
A delicate, refined pair of French Mid-Century Modern neoclassical side or end tables / gueridon in the spirit of Jean Michel Frank and attributed to the French Master Ironworker, Gi...
Stone, Wrought Iron
$5,200 / set
H 18.5 in W 19 in D 19 in
Pair of Wrought Iron and Travertine 'Entretoise' Side Tables by Design Frères
By Mathieu Matégot, Design Frères
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Pair of wrought iron and travertine 'Entretoise' side tables by Design Frères. Chic pair of versatile side or end tables. Also great as a two-part coffee table. Indoor or outdoor use.
Travertine, Wrought Iron
$4,600 / set
H 20 in W 25 in D 17 in
Pair of 'Diagramme' Wrought Iron and Travertine Side Tables by Design Frères
By Paul Dupré-Lafon, Design Frères
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Pair of 'Diagramme' wrought iron and travertine side tTables by Design Frères. Measures: Lower bar is 4.5" inches from the floor.
Travertine, Wrought Iron
$5,200 / set
H 18 in W 16 in D 16 in
Pair of 'Esquisse' Parchment and Wrought Iron Side Tables by Design Frères
By Design Frères
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Pair of 'Esquisse' parchment and blackened wrought iron side tables by DESIGN FRÈRES. The smooth, natural cream parchment top is matched with an elegant contrasting blackened wrought...
Wrought Iron
$4,600 / set
H 20 in W 25 in D 17 in
Pair of 'Diagramme' Wrought Iron and Travertine Side Tables by Design Frères
By Paul Dupré-Lafon, Design Frères
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Pair of 'Diagramme' wrought iron and travertine side tables by Design Frères. Measures: Lower bar is 4.5" inches from the floor.
Travertine, Wrought Iron
Art Deco Side Table in Opaline and Iron, Attributed to René Prou
By René Prou
Located in Saint-Ouen, FR
Art Deco side table in gild iron and black opaline, attributed to René Prou.
Iron
$4,600 / set
H 20 in W 25 in D 17 in
Pair of 'Diagramme' Wrought Iron and Travertine Side Tables by Design Frères
By Paul Dupré-Lafon, Design Frères
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Pair of 'Diagramme' wrought iron and travertine side tables by Design Frères. Measures: Lower bar is 4.5" inches from the floor.
Travertine, Wrought Iron
$4,600 / set
H 20 in W 25 in D 17 in
Pair of 'Diagramme' Wrought Iron and Travertine Side Tables by Design Frères
By Design Frères, Paul Dupré-Lafon
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Pair of 'Diagramme' wrought iron and travertine side tTables by Design Frères. Measures: Lower bar is 4.5" inches from the floor.
Travertine, Wrought Iron
Circular Gilt Iron Occasional Side Table by René Prou
By René Prou
Located in London, GB
A circular side/occasional table by René Prou (1887-1947), with a gilt forged iron frame and original foliate églomisé mirror glass top. French, c. 1940.
Iron
Sold
H 22.05 in W 20.08 in D 9.85 in
Midcentury René Prou Sycamore Brass Nightstands or End Tables, 1940s
By René Prou
Located in Paris, IDF
These Art Deco nightstands or side tables infuse a cozy, romantic feel into a contemporary bedroom. With a base of warm sycamore maple and a stunning mirrored bronze top, the pair is...
Brass
Pair Of End Of Sofa Table By Rene Prou
By René Prou
Located in Auribeau sur Siagne, FR
THE GLASS PART IS ONLY INSTALLED ON A WOOD PLATE, IT CAN BE STUCK
Metal, Brass