JACQUES ADNET
JACQUES ADNET
For our third modernist designer to know, we’re taking you into the heart of French art, culture, and history: Paris.
If you missed February’s featured designer, read here!
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Jacques Adnet (1900-1984)
France
Architect, Designer
Jacques Adnet and his twin brother, Jean, received their artistic education at the École des Arts Décoratifs in Paris in 1916.
Following graduation, the twins founded their own design firm, Jean & Jacques Adnet, where they would work together for the next four years.
During this period, Adnet’s work was largely inspired by the popular Art Deco style of the early era. He used it to update traditional furniture in new ways and placed heavy emphasis on materials like leather, metals, mirror, and woods.
In 1928, the brothers’ paths took different directions when Jacques Adnet accepted a directorship at the design firm La Compagnie des Arts Français. It was here that his style began to shift towards the work he is most famous for…
He continued to use luxurious materials and to reinvent traditional forms, but he began to embrace the svelte lines and shapes of modernist design.
Campaign chair and ottoman, 1940s (source)
Lounge chairs, 1950 (source)
Coffee table with mirror, 1930s (source)
His unique modern style continued into the 1940s, when Hermès commissioned Adnet for nearly a decade’s worth of furniture designs. Adnet’s most famous pieces include the leather mirror, Circulaire, and his table lamp, Quadro VII, which was produced in Italy.
Circulaire, round leather mirrors, 1950 (source)
Quadro VII Lamp, 1929 (source)
Adnet also renovated and designed several high-profile interiors in the 1940s and 50s, including French President Vincent Auriol’s private apartments, Paris’s UNESCO headquarters, and several luxury ocean liners.
When La Compagnie des Arts Français closed in 1959, he resumed his work as an art school director.
MORE MODERN DESIGNS BY JACQUES ADNET
Hand-stitched leather lounge chairs, 1950s-1960s (source)
Leather magazine holder designed for Hermès (source)
Stitched leather desk, 1950s (source)
Leather table, 1950s (source)