Jean Prouve Mid Century Modern Metal Black SCAL French Daybed, circa 1950

View Similar Items

Dick Cordemeijer Mid-Century Modern Metal Daybed Cleopatra, circa 1950

Jean Prouvé Scal No. 452 Daybed, 1950s

Jean Prouvé S.C.A.L. Double Daybed, circa 1950

Rare S.C.A.L. Double Daybed by Jean Prouvé, circa 1950

Pair of French Mid-Century Modern Side Tables or Nightstands, Jean Prouve

Dick Cordemeijer Mid-Century Modern Metal and Wood Daybed Cleopatra, circa 1950

Bed by Jean Prouvé from France, 1936

A MID-CENTURY-MODERN RECONSTRUCTION Bed DAYBED by ROGER LANDAULT, France, 1950

Mid Century MODERN Rosewood + Mahogany French NIGHTSTANDS, circa 1950s

19th Century French Folding Wrought Iron Campaign Bed

Bed Day Bed 1950 Style Jeans Prouvè Nancy

Want more images or videos?

Request additional images or videos from the seller

1 of 11

Jean Prouve Mid Century Modern Metal Black SCAL French Daybed, circa 1950

About the Item

S.C.A.L. daybed designed by Jean Prouve. Manufactured by Ateliers Prouve, France, circa 1950. This bed has been restored. Metal frame, wood, new upholstery. In good condition, with minor wear consistent with age and use, preserving a beautiful patina. Jean Prouve (1901-1984), French industrial and furniture designer and architect. Jean Prouve is one of the most influential furniture designers of the early modern design movement, Jean Prouve introduced the machine age and Industrial engineered modern design aesthetic to interiors in the steel, aluminium and architecture he created. He then continued her experiments with different materials. Jean Prouve was born into an artistic family in Nancy, France, his famous father, Victor Prouve, collaborated with the great Art Nouveau artists Emile Galle and Louis Majorelle as a ceramicist. Jean Prouve himself was trained as a metalsmith before attending engineering school in Nancy, and his intimate knowledge of metal remained the foundation of his work and career. After opening his own workshop in 1923, Jean Prouve began producing modern metal furniture of his own design as well as collaborating with some of the best known French modern designers of the day, including Le Corbusier and Charlotte Perriand. Jean Prouve always regarded himself as more of an engineer and constructor instead of a modern designer. He never designed for the sake of form alone, concentrating instead on the essence of materials, connections and production. Jean Prouve strove for the most constructionally and materially efficient designs, with such Classic end results as the modern design utilizing his innovative method of folding sheet metal.

Creator:
Jean Prouvé (Manufacturer, Designer)
Dimensions:
Height: 25.99 in (66 cm)Width: 74.81 in (190 cm)Depth: 35.44 in (90 cm)
Style:
Mid-Century Modern (In the Style Of)
Materials and Techniques:
Metal,Textile,Wood
Place of Origin:
France
Period:
1950-1959
Date of Manufacture:
circa 1950
Condition:
Wear consistent with age and use.
Seller Location:
Barcelona, ES
Reference Number:
1stDibs: LU1427210026241

Shop All Jean Prouvé

Jean Prouvé

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 Jean Prouvé is an appreciation of human decency.