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78

born near Enniscorthy, Ireland

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Eileen Gray's Tube light. A vertical lamp

Eileen Gray’s Tube light. © Aram. Aram.co.uk

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studies art in London, then continues her education in Paris

Master lacquerer Seizo Sugawara finishing La Pirogue chaise lounge.
Photo: Eileen Gray.

 

Sugawara finishing La Pirogue chaise lounge. A photo was taken by Gray herself

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opens a workshop in Paris with Japanese lacquer Seizo Sugawara

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designs Rue de Lota apartment in Paris

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Eileen Gray's Roattino floor lamp. A black curved vertical lamp

studies architecture informally

Eileen Gray’s Roattino floor lamp. © Aram. Aram.co.uk

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The bedroom at E-1027 villa. A bed with a fur cover

The bedroom at E-1027, 1929.

 

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builds the E-1027 villa for herself and her lover Jean Badovici

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Eileen Gray’s Rivoli table. A while table made of metal tubes

splits up with Badovici, leaves E-1027

Eileen Gray’s Rivoli table. © Aram. Aram.co.uk

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builds a new villa for herself: Tempe a païa

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Eileen Gray sitting in an armchair in her Rue de Bonaparte apartment in Paris with the Brick Screen

Eileen Gray in her Rue de Bonaparte apartment in Paris with the Brick Screen, 1970.

 

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gets interned

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historian Joseph Rykwert begins reviving interest in Gray’s work

Eileen Gray’s Bonaparte Chair. A chair made of metal and black leather

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retrospective exhibition Eileen Gray: Pioneer of Design is held in London

 

Eileen Gray’s Bonaparte Chair. © Aram. Aram.co.uk

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Gray is given an honorary fellowship by the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland

 

 

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dies in Paris

Eileen Gray’s Centimetre rug. A black rug with white numbers and lines

Eileen Gray’s Centimetre rug. © Aram. Aram.co.uk

Created with Sketch.

a house is not a machine to live in. it is the shell of man, his extension, his release, his spiritual emanation. —eileen gray

Eileen Gray’s Aixia chair in a concrete basement

Eileen Gray’s Aixia chair. © Aram. Aram.co.uk

 

early life

Eileen Gray was born in Ireland to Scottish parents. Her mother was a direct descendant of the King of Scotland James V. Gray’s father was a landscape painter, which sparked in her a lifelong interest in the arts. Eileen spent her childhood partly in Ireland and partly in her family home in Kensington, London.

Young Eileen Gray in a white dress looking into camera
The Gray family, from Brownswood House in Enniscorthy, Co.

The Gray family, from Brownswood House in Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford.

19-year-old Eileen Gray, 1897.

Eileen picnicking in Ireland with her sister Thora.

 

©National Museum of Ireland.

Eileen picnicking in Ireland with her sister Thora
Created with Sketch.

to create, one must first question everything. —eileen gray

Eileen Gray’s round Occasional table. A black lacquered table with a metal leg

Eileen Gray’s round Occasional table. © Aram. Aram.co.uk

lacquerie
and art deco

In 1900 Eileen Gray began to take classes at the prestigious Slade art school in London, including both sculpture and lacquering. In 1902 she relocated to Paris to continue her art education, then returned to London three years later to stay with her mother, who’d fallen ill, but later left for Paris again. It was then she started studying under Seizo Sugawara, a Japanese master of traditional lacquerie art. In 1910 Gray and Sugawara opened an interior design workshop in Paris.

In the following years the workshop became famous, despite the fact Grey and Sugawara were forced to flee to England to escape World War I. The peak achievement of this period was Gray’s interior design for the Rue de Lota apartment in Paris. In 1921 Gray became involved with architecture critic Jean Badovici and a year later opened her own boutique under the pseudonym Jean Désert.

Pirogue chaise lounge designed by Eileen Gray for Madame Mathieu-Lévy’s Rue de Lota Apartment

Pirogue chaise lounge designed by Eileen Gray for Madame Mathieu-Lévy’s Rue de Lota Apartment in Paris, 1922.

Glass Salon at Madame Mathieu-Lévy’s Rue de Lota Apartment designed by Paul Ruaud and Eileen Gray

Glass Salon at Madame Mathieu-Lévy’s Rue de Lota Apartment designed by Paul Ruaud and Eileen Gray. Paris, 1922.

 

Interior of Rue de Lota apartment designed by Eileen Gray for Madame Mathieu-Lévy

Interior of Rue de Lota apartment designed by Eileen Gray for Madame Mathieu-Lévy. Paris, 1922.

 

 

Created with Sketch.

if one can say le corbusier is one of the fathers of modernity, then one can say eileen gray is one of the mothers of modernity. —cloé pitiot, curator

Eileen Gray’s Bibendum chair in interior. A black chair on a white square rug

Eileen Gray’s Bibendum chair in interior. © Aram. Aram.co.uk

 

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