Chairs by Armand-Albert Rateau

After attending the École Boulle, Rateau worked at two of Paris’ most prestigious design houses, that of Georges Hoenstschel and Alavoine et Cie, both proficient at assembling period or contemporary interiors for their haute bourgeoisie clientele. When he opened his own design firm, Rateau adopted a signature style that luxuriously reinterpreted historical styles for modern life.

Rateau’s first major independent project was decorating the ballroom and indoor pool area of George and Florence Meyer Blumenthal’s New York City townhouse. In addition to appointing numerous other properties for the same client, Rateau acquired additional patrons such as the Spanish Duke and Duchess of Alba and French couturier Jeanne Lanvin.

For Lanvin, Rateau decorated both residences and boutiques, and for a brief period he headed Lanvin Décoration, a short-lived venture primarily focused on the couturier’s retail interiors. He also designed graphics and the bottle for her signature fragrance “Arpège.” Rateau appears to have used this chair model in his designs for the interiors of Lanvin’s boutique at 16 rue Boissy-d’Anglas, as demonstrated in the period photographs above. In the fashion plate, mounts appear to have been added to coordinate the chair with the decorative scheme of the area of the boutique in which the photo was taken.

While Rateau was lauded by the critics and cognoscenti fortunate enough to gain access to his work, he would remain largely unknown to the general public during his lifetime, as he neither belonged to to any professional organizations nor exhibed at the Salone. However, today he is regarded as a true design master of his time. When the Musee des Arts Decoratifs in Paris reopened after renovations in 2001, the rooms Rateau designed for Lanvin’s Paris apartment would be the most anticipated part of the collection to return to view.

Literature:
Hélène David Weill, Décoration et haute couture: Armand Albert Rateau pour Jeanne Lanvin, Paris, Les Arts Décoratifs, 2006, pgs 64, 65