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JEAN ROYÈRE, 1902-1981

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Rare "Ours Polaire" sofa, ca. 1950
Oak, fabric. 25 x 93 x 54 in. (63.5 x 236.2 x 137.2 cm.)

PROVENANCE Private Collection, Lebanon
LITERATURE Yvonne Brunhammer, Le Mobilier Français 1930-1960, Paris, 1997, p. 139 for a drawing; Jean Royère, exh. cat., Galerie Jacques Lacoste, Paris, 1999, pp. 24, 40, 63 and 83-85; Jean Royère, Décorateur à Paris, exh. cat., Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, 1999, pp. 9-10, 25, 41, 60, 63, 70-72, 76, 161, 165 and pp. 12, 115, 122-123 125 for drawings; Pierre-Emmanuel Martin-Vivier, Jean Royère, Paris, 2002, pp. 45, 143, 210-211, 226-229, 231-232, 247, 266, 285, 291 and pp. 15 and 233 for drawings

After the doldrums of war, European furniture of the 1950s perked up: seats swelled; silhouettes swung out of bounds. The geometric rigors of Modernism succumbed to cants, curves, and playful biomorphs: Serge Mouille's insect lamps, alert on spindle legs, threatened to walk away; Carlo Mollino's sculpted chairs, pitched at dangerous angles, never sat still. In an undated graphite drawing, Mollino sketched a gazelle in flight, a telling inspiration. French designer Jean Royère added to the menagerie; his silhouettes drew inspiration from surrealism and from the natural world: "Polar Bears," "Elephants," "Eggs," and "Bananas," an unexpected bunch. Royère enlivened his furniture with playful names, robust volumes, and elaborate upholstery, as in the present lot. He first exhibited a similar canapé at "La Résidence Française," a 1947 Paris show organized by the magazine Art et Industrie. In Jean Royère (Galerie de Beyrie, 2000), collector Michael Boyd wrote: "There is a serious sculptural content imbued—but there is a playful, even humorous side, too." Simply put, Royère cracked a good joke. But Boyd is right, Royère modeled in the round. In the present sofa, the horizontal sweep of the frame is mimicked by a vertical one: the broad slope of the back into the arms, a continuous curve. The sofa's shapely lines offer surprising lightness and grace—it's no elephant in the room. 

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