Fauteuil Transatlantique

The Irish designer Gray had a glittering career behind her in Paris as an Art Deco designer when she began to take an interest in Modernism, around 1925. Her young Romanian friend Jean Badovici introduced her to the work of Le Corbusier and other Modernists and helped her with a number of architectural commissions, including the house they shared in Roquebrune (1925-9). The design of this house (named E.1027), was the work of Gray, with technical help from Badovici. It turned into a laboratory for a new kind of Modernism, not only in architecture, but even more so in design. Gray admired Le Corbusier, who gave her a set of his architectural drawings, but she also retained an acute and critic

Armchair · Paris · 1925-1930. Sycamore, chromium-plated metal upholstery: Faux leather made from a kaolin filled polyacrylate resin (around 1960s). By Gray, Eileen. Victoria and Albert Museum, London.