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Lot Essay
Born in 1907 from an aristocratic mother, eccentric British poet and landscape gardener Edward James also inherited his British American father’s fortune in metal. He became one of the greatest patrons of Surrealist art in the 20th Century, providing support to Salvador Dali, Leonor Fini and René Magritte amongst others. A brief marriage with Viennese actress and dancer Tilly Losch drew James into the world of ballets and the Neo-Romantic artists, notably Pavel Tchelitchev and Christian Bérard. Through Charles and Marie-Laure de Noailles, James had met with Dali, and in the late 1930s, he commissioned him to remodel the interior of his country house, Monkton, in West Sussex, resulting in one of the most spectacular and widely innovative Surrealist interiors, including notably the iconic ‘Mae West Lips’ Sofa.
In the 1930s, James had also taken a house in Wimpole street, that he decorated in his own unconventional taste, taking inspiration from Les Ballets 1933 and their pictorial universe, delicate, elusive and dreamy. James’ interior reflected his search for a visual and spiritual experience that transcended the predictable or conventional. A celebrated 1939 portrait by Norman Parkinson shows James languid in his office, draped ceiling above antique furniture and Italian ornaments. By contrast, his bathroom was a dazzling modernist mosaic of tinted glass and mirrored surface.
The present floor lamp was most likely part of the furnishing of James’ London residence at 35, Wimpole Street. An outwardly sophisticated and elegant design, the translucency of the shaft and the mirrored surfaces respond to light to accumulate shadow, reinforcing the mystery and ambiguous presence of the object .
This is lot is accompanied by a certificate from the Comité Jean-Michel Frank.
In the 1930s, James had also taken a house in Wimpole street, that he decorated in his own unconventional taste, taking inspiration from Les Ballets 1933 and their pictorial universe, delicate, elusive and dreamy. James’ interior reflected his search for a visual and spiritual experience that transcended the predictable or conventional. A celebrated 1939 portrait by Norman Parkinson shows James languid in his office, draped ceiling above antique furniture and Italian ornaments. By contrast, his bathroom was a dazzling modernist mosaic of tinted glass and mirrored surface.
The present floor lamp was most likely part of the furnishing of James’ London residence at 35, Wimpole Street. An outwardly sophisticated and elegant design, the translucency of the shaft and the mirrored surfaces respond to light to accumulate shadow, reinforcing the mystery and ambiguous presence of the object .
This is lot is accompanied by a certificate from the Comité Jean-Michel Frank.