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Emile-Jacques Ruhlmann
(1879-1933) is often referred to as the "Genius of Art
Deco" and is generally recognized as the seminal French
Art Deco designer of the 20th century. He designed furniture,
wallpaper, rugs, and light fixtures. His furniture is distinguished
by its delicate lines, rare woods, intricate ivory inlay, impeccable
craftsmanship, and aesthetic refinement. Collectors today especially
vie for Ruhlmann pieces made of macassar ebony, Brazilian rosewood,
and amboyna burl. Ruhlmann would examine 1200 sheets of veneer
from a piece of exotic wood out of which he may choose one for
incorporation into his furniture designs. He was born in Paris
into a family that owned a painting and home contracting company,
so he grew up around woodworkers and craftsmen from whom he
learned his trade and through whom he met talented designers
and architects. When his father died in 1907, Ruhlmann assumed
ownership of his family's business, taking it in new directions
of the French Art Deco influence just emerging at the time and
applying his design ideas first to the new Paris apartment he
purchased with his new wife in 1910. In 1919, he expanded directly
into the interior design business in partnership with popular
French designer Pierre Laurent, and their designs for furniture,
wallpaper, and accessories were instant hits with the Paris
elite. Early designs trended more to the flowing Art Nouveau
style which had been popular since the late 1800s, and he subsequently
moved into heavier, more substantial designs that reflected
the traits of the English Arts & Crafts movement. However,
by 1920 he was completely consumed by the sensibilities and
aesthetic values of French Art Deco. His use of rare and expensive
woods was supplemented by the use of ivory highlights for inlays,
handles, feel, and dentil work. Early production was contracted
out to the best French cabinet shops, but in 1923 he opened
his own manufacturing operation and by 1928 had expanded to
2 locations and included upholsterers, draftsmen, finishers,
and over 30 master cabinetmakers.
Ruhlmann's work was
always designed for the wealthy and it remains so today, and
he had somewhat of an elitist attitude but was realistic given
the cost of the materials and time consuming craftsmanship he
used in his designs. One very large and elaborate Ruhlmann piece
reportedly took up to 1,000 hours of labor and cost the equivalent
of a house. "A clientele of artists, intellectuals, and
connoisseurs of modest means is very congenial, but they are
not in a position to pay for all the research, the experimentation,
the testing that is needed to develop a new design," Ruhlmann
said in 1920. "Only the very rich can pay for what is new,
and they alone can make it fashionable. Fashions don't start
among the common people. Along with satisfying a desire for
change, fashion's real purpose is to display wealth." Ruhlmann
liked to design everything in an interior except the fine art.
He made his name internationally at the 1925 Art Deco exposition
in Paris, the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs
et Industriels Modernes, where he designed the decor for
several temporary pavillions. The most acclaimed was his Collector's
House, a high-ceilinged building with a grand salon, a dining
room, a boudoir, an office, a bedroom, and a bath. "I support
my decorating business the way others sponsor a ballerina or
horse stable," he once said. "Each piece of my furniture
costs me an average of 20 to 25 percent more than I bill my
clients. It is because I have faith in the future, and that
I run another business with safe return, and whose profits fill
up the holes that I am digging in the moon." His clients
included Baron Henri de Rothschild, the Maharaja of Indore,
the writer Coulette, the couturiere Madame Jeanne Paquin, Eugene
Schueller (the French chemist who founded the cosmetics company
L'Oreal), and Gabriel Voisin, the aviation pioneer and carmaker.
In Ruhlmann's later years, he became interested in designing
affordable furniture in solid, unadorned woods and industrial
materials. The stock market crash of 1929 and ensuing worldwide
Depression diminished the wealth and undermined the societal
attitudes that had sustained Art Deco. He learned that he was
terminally ill in 1933, and he mandated that only orders already
in process were to be finished after which the company was to
be closed. When he learned he was dying, he created a new system
of inventory and sent every client a letter of authenticity
for every piece he ever worked on- clearly thinking ahead. Scholars,
collectors, and dealers owe gratitude to Ruhlmann, not only
for his masterly, original, and elegant designs but also for
the impeccable record keeping that allows us to verify them
today.
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