Andre Groult center table (#1743)

Classic Art Deco center table by Andre Groult, circa 1920. Sculpted French walnut with original shagreen top. Well-documented and exceedingly rare. 49.5” diameter x 27” high.

Andre Groult (1884-1966) 

Andre Groult, was one of the most important and influential Frenchdesigners of the Art Deco period. Beginning around 1910, he sought tocreate his own form of neotraditionalism. He along with a handful ofother designers, led by Ruhlmann and including Paul Follot, AndreDomin, Michel Roux-Spitz, Maurice Noel, Maurice Dufrene, AndreFrechet, Louis Sue and Andre Mare, were the leading ProgressiveTraditionalists. They were described in the period by GuillaumeJanneau as “a singular mixture of daring curiosity and selectedculture”. A group who, furthermore, considered themselves contemporarybut not modern.Groult formed his own company, which was multi-disciplinary, afterhaving worked for the Paris shop La Maison Moderne. There he had ledthe shift from Art Nouveau towards more restrained Classical styles.For the Ambassade Français (the French “Embassy” commissioned by theFrench government to represent the sublime of French contemporarydesign) at the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs etIndustriels Modernes in 1925, Groult designed the “Chambre de Madame”in shades of pink and gray. The furniture with its gently undulatingcurves, was covered or accented in natural galuchat. Groult’s wife, Nicole, a fashion designer, was the sister of Frenchcouturier Paul Poiret.