Eugène Printz (1889 – 1948)
Eugène Printz is a French cabinet-maker and designer of the 20th century. Born in 1889, he was first initiated to the copy of ancient furniture in his father’s Parisian workshop. From 1920, he however began designing his own’s modern furniture. He collaborated then with Pierre Chareau for the International Exposition of Modern Industrial and Decorative Arts held in Paris in 1925. The exhibition was a great success.
Printz designed luxury furniture using simple forms and high end materials such as palmwood veneer and gilt or oxidized bronze. He also embellished some of his furniture with sumptuous decorative panels lacquered by Jean Dunand, creating some of the finest furniture of the Art Deco period.
His Art Deco designs found favor with the European social elite, with notable accomplishments including the furnishing of haute-couture fashion designer Jeanne Lanvin‘s office. He was also entrusted with numerous significant public commissions, including the French Mobilier National and the City of Paris and foreign clients in the UK, Belgium, North America, Mexico. In 1935, Printz was involved in the design of an apartment of the luxury and innovative ocean liner SS Normandy. The Paris Museum of Modern Art and the Musée des Arts Décoratifs keep today several of his pieces of furniture.
Image Wikipedia.
