Fireplace and Hearth Blog

In spite of being a bit known than Le Corbusier or Mies van der Rohe, no one could ignore that the Irish stylist Eileen Grayis among the greatest designers of the modern time. Acknowledged as one the top pioneers of the Modern design movement in the early 20th century, Eileen Gray were among the first to go beyond the conventions of customary design and gave way to what is now known as the modern furniture style.

Born Kathleen Eileen Moray Gray on August 1878 at Enniscorthy, Ireland, Eileen Gray was the youngest child of the well-to-do Gray clan. James Maclaren Gray, Eileen’s father, was an amateur artist and would always advise her fascination for the arts. In 1896, Gray was given to the well known Slade School of Fine Art of the University College London until her father’s burial 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 noted Japanese lacquer restorer working at the Exposition Universelle in France. Gray’s five years of learnings under Sugawara would later established with the famous “Block Screen” lacquered wall panels she introducedat Rue de Lota apartment in Paris in 1917.

Perhaps the design that Eileen Gray is best known for this present time is her Bibendum Chair. Made between the years 1917 and 1921, the Bibendum Chair is a red leather chair composed of a groups of padded tubes. Gray {called|named] the chair after the Bibendum company mascot of the Michelin tire company, which had a like rounded shape. The Bibendum chair is noted by many not only for its unconventional design but also for being quite comfortable to use, a attribute made to the chair’s interwoven rubber support at the seat and Gray’s plan of soft leather as upholstery.

In 1925, the Swiss-born French architect and designer Le Corbusier finished in his book, the Contemporary Arts of Today, that modern furniture should be similar to that of a human body. This “human-limb object” furniture, as Le Corbusier described it at the time, must amend to the several works of the human body while being discreet in doing so. Le Corbusier would then put his plans into practice when he collaborated with French interior designer Charlotte Perriand on several tubular steel furniture creations. Among these designs is the LC1 Sling chair.

Of all the chair designs Le Corbusier made in his career, the Le Corbusier No. 1 or the LC1 “Sling” chair would possibly be his most legendary. Also known as the Basculant Chair, the Sling Chair is a slim tubular steel chair originated on the style of the British officer’s chair. The chair chiefly comprises of a skeletal welded tubular steel frame, over which a leather or ponyskin seat and backrest are fixed on tightly. Frames on early models of the LC1 were purely polished steel, even if they were steadily changed with chrome-plated steel. In addition, the Sling Chair also features a pair of matching leather arm rests which look like belts enveloped around the sides of the frame.

In addition to its modest appearance, the LC1 Sling Chair is also designed with comfort in mind. The back of the chair, for example, features a adjustable steel rod which permits the chair to tilt whenever its occupant modifies his or her sitting position. This enables the Sling Chair to anticipate the movements of its occupant and keep him or her comfortable at all times. What’s more, the chair’s unique arm rest design allowed the arms to rest comfortably without restricting their natural action.

The LC1 was among Le Corbusier’s designs that were exhibited at the high-status Salon d’ Automne in 1929. The chair also holds prestige for being included in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.