Irish Stylist Eileen Gray : Model Of Modern Design
In spite of being lesser recognized than Le Corbusier or Mies van der Rohe, no one could ignore that the Irish designer Eileen Grayis also the finest designers of the modern time. Acknowledged as one the top founders of the Modern design movement in the early 20th century, Eileen Gray were also the first to go beyond the conventions of traditional design and pave the way to what is now recognized as the modern furniture style.
Born Kathleen Eileen Moray Gray on August 1878 near Enniscorthy, Ireland, Eileen Gray was the youngest daughter of the well-to-do Gray clan. James Maclaren Gray, Eileen’s father, was an amateur painter and would often encourage her fascination for the arts. In 1896, Gray was given to the prestigious Slade School of Fine Art of the University College London until her father’s death in 1900. Gray remains her studies at the Académie Julian and the Académie Colarossi in Paris, but returned to London in 1905 to take care of her mother. It was during her stay at London where she met and knew the art of lacquerwork from Seizo Sugawara, a known Japanese lacquer restorer working at the Exposition Universelle in France. Gray’s five years of study under Sugawara would later bear fruit with the famous “Block Screen” lacquered wall panels she introducedat Rue de Lota apartment in Paris in 1917.
Possibly the works that Eileen Gray is best remembered for today is her Bibendum Chair. Designed between the years 1917 and 1921, the Bibendum Chair is a red leather chair composed of a groups of padded tubes. Gray similar rounded shape. The Bibendum chair is noted by many not only for its different design but also for being quite comfortable to use, a feature made to the chair’s interwoven rubber support at the seat and Gray’s choice of soft leather as upholstery.
