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Lot Essay
Léon Cauvy (1874-1933) studied at the École Nationale des Beaux-Arts de Montpellier, leaving in 1895 for Paris to study under painter Albert Maignan, and then returning to Montpellier and beginning a career designing Art Nouveau furniture as well as exhibiting paintings. In 1898, he completed a commission for Emmanuel Laurens to decorate the interior of a house he was building in Agde, Hérault, a short distance from Montpellier and later known as the Château Laurens. During his career, Cauvy won numerous prizes for his designs for furniture and interiors, including twelve featured in Art et Décoration magazine between 1896 and 1906. He also exhibited regularly in the salons of the Société des Artistes Français from 1901, including a screen with leather decoration in 1901, a display case with leather panels which was presented in 1902, and later decorative panels and wallpaper designs. In 1907, at the age of 33, Cauvy took up a place at the Villa Abd-el-Tif in Algiers, a European artists' colony, and settled thereafter in Algeria, eventually becoming the director of the École Nationale des Beaux-Arts d'Alger. Once in Algeria, his artistic career focused on Orientalist painting and printmaking rather than the decorative arts, although in 1925 he decorated the interior of the Pavillon de l'Algérie, Exposition International des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes, Paris, which was later transported to the governor's Summer Palace in Algiers.
Paul Arnavielhe was a cabinet-maker and active member of the Montpellier community, and collaborated with Léon Cauvy on other suites of furniture, notably those designed for Emmanuel Laurens, parts of which are included in the collection of the Musée Agathois Jules Badou in Agde. Further elements from the Laurens commission bedroom suite appeared at auction in Paris in 2013 and were pre-empted for the museum by the Service des Musées de France. The designs and leatherwork in their collaborations were Cauvy's, while Arnavielhe undertook the cabinet-making, a shift from the latter's otherwise more traditional style.
Intriguingly, the bed bears a U.S. customs label, which may relate to its possible presentation in a New York exhibition, where it is believed by the current owner to have won a medal. Documentation about Léon Cauvy remains scarce, but the rediscovery of this hitherto unrecorded suite is a substantial addition to works from Cauvy's rare oeuvre.
For further images see www.christies.com
Paul Arnavielhe was a cabinet-maker and active member of the Montpellier community, and collaborated with Léon Cauvy on other suites of furniture, notably those designed for Emmanuel Laurens, parts of which are included in the collection of the Musée Agathois Jules Badou in Agde. Further elements from the Laurens commission bedroom suite appeared at auction in Paris in 2013 and were pre-empted for the museum by the Service des Musées de France. The designs and leatherwork in their collaborations were Cauvy's, while Arnavielhe undertook the cabinet-making, a shift from the latter's otherwise more traditional style.
Intriguingly, the bed bears a U.S. customs label, which may relate to its possible presentation in a New York exhibition, where it is believed by the current owner to have won a medal. Documentation about Léon Cauvy remains scarce, but the rediscovery of this hitherto unrecorded suite is a substantial addition to works from Cauvy's rare oeuvre.
For further images see www.christies.com