A FOUR-PANEL SCREEN, CIRCA 1923

Jean Lambert-Rucki was born in Poland in 1888 and moved to Paris where he met Jean Dunand in 1920. Their partnership produced some of the most striking, charming and exquisite artifacts created in Paris in the inter-war years. While Dunand was himself an accomplished artist, he was also an outstanding craftsman who was happy to put the services of his atelier at the disposal of certain other artists he admired, and most notably he provided the technical resources to translate into rich lacquers the delightful imagery ofJean Lambert-Rucki. Higly stylized animal and figural subjects were finely rendered in polychrome lacquers, enhanced with gilding and with areas of inlaid eggshell. Folding screens provided a perfect context within which to bring together the considerable creative and craft skills that defined this partnership, although they worked together on a variety of scales, creating decorative panels, furniture and objects both functional and decorative.

The present screen incorporates design elements from Dunand and Lambert-Rucki's 'Fantastic Animals' and 'Le Cirque' screens.