Compagnie des Arts Français, decorator, Louis Süe (1875-1968), architect, André Mare (1887-1932), painter, Dining room, Paris, c. 1920-1921

The Compagnie des Arts Français was founded in response to the desire of a number of 1920s architects and decorators to work in conjunction with artists and artisans from complementary fields in order to deal with every aspect of architecture and interior decoration. The company, founded in 1919 by the architect Louis Süe and the painter André Mare, brought together painters and sculptors with an interest in the decorative applications of their work: Paul Véra, Gustave-Louis Jaulmes, Richard Desvallières, Charles Dufresne, André Duwalnut de Segonzac, Bernard Boutet de Monvel, Jean-Louis Boussingault, André Marty, Pierre Poisson and Maurice Marinot. In 1921, Süe and Mare published a manifesto entitled Architectures, illustrated by Marie Laurencin, Jean-Louis Boussingault, André Duwalnut de Segonzac, Roger de La Fresnaye and Bernard Boutet de Monvel, with a text by Paul Valéry called “Eupalinos, or the Architect.” One of the design projets is very similar to the dining room created in 1920-1921 for Monsieur and Madame Pierre Girod, illustrating the desire to produce “serious, logical, welcoming” designs based on tradition. The walls, covered with black rosewood and mahogany, are illuminated by the ceiling, by Paul Véra’s gilt stucco low-relief panels depicting Summer and Autumn and by the basins and mascaron (mask face) of the gilt bronze fountain.