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Lot Essay
The largest, fastest and most elaborately-decorated ocean liner of its day, the S.S. Normandie was described in marketing material produced for the ship's launch in 1935 as an “homage from France to America”. French press compared its size to the Eiffel Tower, while American reports described it in terms of the Empire State Building. Able to cross the Atlantic at record speeds and duly awarded the prestigious Blue Riband several times, the Normandie was not only a powerful representation of French industrial prestige, but also a symbol of national arts, design and technology, and, importantly, of French culture and tradition. If its exterior was impressive, its interior was a “floating museum”, intended to introduce all its passengers to the quality of French craftmanship. The most important designers of the time, such as Jean Dunand, René Lalique, Jean Dupas, Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann and Pierre Patout, among others, contributed to the ship elegant environment, decorating the first class cabins and public rooms in the best Art Deco style.
Having left from Le Havre, the Normandie made its final voyage to New York in 1939 and remained there due to war-time conditions. In December 1941, the United States government seized the Normandie, stripped it of its decoration and converted the liner to a war ship to carry American troops. However, in February 1942, a fire broke out on board. Firefighters doused the ship with so much water that it capsized the next day. Fortunately, the decorations had previously been packed and stored in a warehouse, and were offered at auction in 1942 and 1943.
Carrying almost 2,000 passengers (848 in first class, 670 in tourist and 454 in third), the Normandie gathered considerable media attention at the time, thanks to its glamorous passenger such as Salvador Dali, Colette, James Stewart, Marlene Dietrich, and with its spectacular interiors. The grandest of the ship's salons were decorated with an attention to materials that consciously recalled the regal sumptuousness of the Château de Versailles interiors.
The Grand Salon, distinguished by its impressive 32-foot high ceilings and cruciform layout, was paneled with verre églomisé murals by Jean Dupas, ornamented with a symbolic gilded blazing mid-day sun stationary over calm waters, provided the showcase for the elegant furnishings designed by Jean Rothschild. The theater, first ever to appear on an ocean liner, included a full stage. The indoor pool was 80 feet long. The Winter Garden, where several stars were photographed, featured exotic birds and spectacular live greenery. Every cabin was done in a different décor and theme.
Roger-Henri Expert (1882-1955) and Richard Bouwens (1863-1939), the architects for the Normandie, had stipulated that the materials for decorative elements had to be resistant, smooth and reflective. These were to include Dunand’s lacquer, glass by Lalique, and of course the spectacular use of verre églomisé by Jean Dupas, who responded with determination to “make something bountiful and splendid”. His mural for the Grand Salon was a total of four hundred meters square, and the artist’s most visible and important commission. To execute them, he enlisted the help of master glassworker Jacques-Charles Champigneulle (1907-1955), who translated his drawings into panels that shimmered with gold, silver and platinum, representing four scenes that blended classical mythology with this history of modern navigation: The Birth of Aphrodite, The Chariot of Thetis, The Chariot of Poseidon and The Abduction of Europa. As written by Bruno Foucart in Normandie, Queen of the Sea, “These great golden panels have about them a joyousness, a humor and a sophistication that now seem the very embodiment of the 1930s, a between-the-war world that, in the middle of the ocean, could appear like an interlude between pleasures.”
The complexity of the theme, the drama of the composition, and the rich detailing constitute a distinctive French neo-baroque style, modulated by the neo-classical elements that Dupas favored - clarity of line, frontal composition, lack of a receding perspective. The most substantial surviving elements from these superb murals are in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
The present lot features three panels from the The Abduction of Europa, or L’Enlèvement d’Europe, mural. These panels depict the pivotal scene of Europa being taken by the Greek god, Zeus, as he takes the form of a bull. The drama is portrayed through a golden bull trudging through stylized silver waves while Europa, the lower half of her figure presented here, rides along his back. Hand-painted blue waves caress around the figures while a mauve-colored fishtail protrudes from the far right, belonging to one of the horse-headed serpents in the further panels. Three consecutive panels such as these from the front row of the mural, as noted by the inscriptions on their pegamoid backings, offers collectors a rare opportunity to acquire not only a piece of the Normandie’s history and beautiful example of Dupas’ work, but an attractive isolated scene within Dupas’ larger mural.
Having left from Le Havre, the Normandie made its final voyage to New York in 1939 and remained there due to war-time conditions. In December 1941, the United States government seized the Normandie, stripped it of its decoration and converted the liner to a war ship to carry American troops. However, in February 1942, a fire broke out on board. Firefighters doused the ship with so much water that it capsized the next day. Fortunately, the decorations had previously been packed and stored in a warehouse, and were offered at auction in 1942 and 1943.
Carrying almost 2,000 passengers (848 in first class, 670 in tourist and 454 in third), the Normandie gathered considerable media attention at the time, thanks to its glamorous passenger such as Salvador Dali, Colette, James Stewart, Marlene Dietrich, and with its spectacular interiors. The grandest of the ship's salons were decorated with an attention to materials that consciously recalled the regal sumptuousness of the Château de Versailles interiors.
The Grand Salon, distinguished by its impressive 32-foot high ceilings and cruciform layout, was paneled with verre églomisé murals by Jean Dupas, ornamented with a symbolic gilded blazing mid-day sun stationary over calm waters, provided the showcase for the elegant furnishings designed by Jean Rothschild. The theater, first ever to appear on an ocean liner, included a full stage. The indoor pool was 80 feet long. The Winter Garden, where several stars were photographed, featured exotic birds and spectacular live greenery. Every cabin was done in a different décor and theme.
Roger-Henri Expert (1882-1955) and Richard Bouwens (1863-1939), the architects for the Normandie, had stipulated that the materials for decorative elements had to be resistant, smooth and reflective. These were to include Dunand’s lacquer, glass by Lalique, and of course the spectacular use of verre églomisé by Jean Dupas, who responded with determination to “make something bountiful and splendid”. His mural for the Grand Salon was a total of four hundred meters square, and the artist’s most visible and important commission. To execute them, he enlisted the help of master glassworker Jacques-Charles Champigneulle (1907-1955), who translated his drawings into panels that shimmered with gold, silver and platinum, representing four scenes that blended classical mythology with this history of modern navigation: The Birth of Aphrodite, The Chariot of Thetis, The Chariot of Poseidon and The Abduction of Europa. As written by Bruno Foucart in Normandie, Queen of the Sea, “These great golden panels have about them a joyousness, a humor and a sophistication that now seem the very embodiment of the 1930s, a between-the-war world that, in the middle of the ocean, could appear like an interlude between pleasures.”
The complexity of the theme, the drama of the composition, and the rich detailing constitute a distinctive French neo-baroque style, modulated by the neo-classical elements that Dupas favored - clarity of line, frontal composition, lack of a receding perspective. The most substantial surviving elements from these superb murals are in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
The present lot features three panels from the The Abduction of Europa, or L’Enlèvement d’Europe, mural. These panels depict the pivotal scene of Europa being taken by the Greek god, Zeus, as he takes the form of a bull. The drama is portrayed through a golden bull trudging through stylized silver waves while Europa, the lower half of her figure presented here, rides along his back. Hand-painted blue waves caress around the figures while a mauve-colored fishtail protrudes from the far right, belonging to one of the horse-headed serpents in the further panels. Three consecutive panels such as these from the front row of the mural, as noted by the inscriptions on their pegamoid backings, offers collectors a rare opportunity to acquire not only a piece of the Normandie’s history and beautiful example of Dupas’ work, but an attractive isolated scene within Dupas’ larger mural.