The House of Leleu
A reverence for the past
“Jules Leleu seems to be one of those who has best understood the needs of his contemporaries, even as he remembers the great French traditions … His work [has already become] so important both here and abroad, where he has often been the ambassador of French good taste.” — Simonne Rate
Elegance, refinement, simplicity are words known to describe the designs of Jules Leleu (1883-1961), one of the lesser known names in the pantheon of twentieth century French design masters. A designer and ensemblier, Leleu rose to prominence in the 1920s as one of the key authors of the Art Deco movement, best known for designs featuring simplified shapes, exotic woods, marquetry, and ivory inlays. A French provincial furniture maker, his modern, supple and magnificently well balanced designs proved a hit at the 1925 L'Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratif in Paris, where he won a Grand Prix (although he had been in business for only a year); the commode in burl amboyna wood with ivory inlays later acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (No. 36) was one of the many works on display. Whilst he never achieved the international recognition of his famed competitors, Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann (1879-1933) and Jean-Michel Frank (1895-941), he was just as successful and probably more prolific than his better-known contemporaries; a commercial success amongst the French and European Aristocracy and the new rising haute bourgeoisie of the Années folles. Leleu’s design aesthetic moderated over time, from the sensuously curved neo-traditionalism of the 1920’s to simplified lines and techniques in the 1930s and a return to a more decorative, but reinterpreted style in the 1940s. As with Ruhlmann, Leleu’s forms, materials and techniques — not to mention his design process — recall but do not replicate the delicate Régence and neoclassical styles of the eighteenth century, which he modified with sober lines and refined ornamentation, linking his original designs to those of the nation’s past.
Leleu was born in Boulogne-sur-Mer, into a family of artisans and decorators. Their firm, Maison Leleu, had existed since the 18th century but had, over time, lost much of its lustre. After studying at the Ecole d’arts appliqués Saint Gildas of Bruxelles, Leleu entered the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, where he studied sculpture with Théophile Deman. This early artistic training provided him with an intimate knowledge of the materials he would later use for his furniture designs. In 1901 Leleu, along with his brother Marcel, took over their father’s business, adding a furniture-making and decorating atelier. As well as furniture design, Leleu began showing his sculptural work at the salons of the Société des artistes français. Upon the outbreak of the First World War, he abandoned his pencils and brushes to fight in the air force. On his return from the front, Leleu opened his own interior design studio and furniture workshop in Paris, while also maintaining his cabinetmaking workshops in Boulogne. Soon he was showing his furniture at several of the important and influential Salons in Paris. In 1922, Leleu submitted his furniture to several Salon exhibitions (including the Salon de la Société des Artistes français where he showed a cabinet that was praised by critics and pictured in Art et Décoration), and the following year his display at the Salon des Artistes Décorateurs brought him the critical and public attention necessary to establish his own business independent of the family firm.
Set of three lacquered nesting tables (c.1925) by Jules Leleu and Katsu Hamanaka Image c/o Maison Gerard
Lacquered cabinet (c. 1965) by Jules Leleu Image c/o Maison Gerard
Two years later, Leleu opened a gallery on avenue Franklin Roosevelt, Paris, while his brother Marcel attended to the work shop, where, in addition to furniture, they designed and produced rugs, lamps, and even designed their own fabrics. The artist Ivan da Silva Bruhns (1881-1980) worked closely with Leleu, designing striking rugs composed of strong geometric forms, combining Modernist rationalism, French Art Deco luxury and pre-Columbian motif (the latter reflecting Da Silva Bruhns’ Latin American heritage). Leleu continued to exhibit at the important salons, and quickly gained a following. At the end of the 1920’s, he acquired the interior designer status (as opposed to that of a cabinetmaker). Shifting from a bourgeois and local clientele, Leleu established an international roster of noteworthy clients, including Gonzalo Zaldumbide, the Ecuadorian ambassador to France, and Prince Pierre of Monaco, father of Rainier III, who appreciated the sober simplicity of his Directoire and Louis-Philippe-inspired furniture. Leleu’s first great realization was the interior of the apartments of businessman Michaël Winburn, from 1927 to 1928, in a purified and rather modernist style. Prestigious commissions then flowed: for e.g. the renovation of the Parisian head office of La Compagnie des Lampes. By 1929, Leleu had moved his show room to Avenue Victor Emmanuel, while his brother Marcel was responsible for the production at the atelier. The House of Leleu was a family business and by the late 1930s, Leleu’s sons, André and Jean, and his daughter, Paule, were active partners.
The furniture of Leleu is often compared to that of his more famous contemporary Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann. Each liked simplified shapes, the surfaces of their furniture reflecting the vogue for using unusual materials such as veneers of rare and exotic woods, parquetry, ivory inlays and other luxurious elements that were to become a hallmark of much Art Deco furniture. Though Leleu had his own distinctive style, often sober and reflective of traditional French furniture design, but also modern in line and use of materials. With commissions of entire rooms, and in many cases entire homes, of the Parisian elite Leleu fine-tuned his aesthetic, seeking subtle curves and simplified geometries. He used metal or ivory sparingly as details or borders and achieved what Françoise Siriex refers to most accurately as a “restrained elegance”. Leleu outlived Ruhlmann, and his style evolved. His earlier pieces are often sensuously curved, but influenced by the new Modernism of the 1930’s, his forms gradually became more linear and restrained, characterized by simple geometric shapes, an absence of ornamentation and the appearance of chromed or nickel-plated elements. He grew more adventurous, adopting new materials like fiberglass, plastic and aluminium; several of his designs have steel legs. Towards the end of the decade he introduced pieces with etched glass elements designed by Schwartz.
Painted steel table (c. 1935) by Jules Leleu in collaboration with Jean Prouvé
Leleu might not have had the spare architectural style of Le Corbusier, but that struggle is nowhere apparent in his work or that of his children. A prolific ensemblier, the awards that he won brought him many important clients and commissions, including the French ocean liners Île-de-France, Atlantique, Normandie and France, private apartments for the Japanese emperor, a pool for the Comte de Rivaud, corporate offices and interiors for public institutions (the League of Nations in Geneva, the Sorbonne, French embassies, even the French president’s private train carriage), as well a dining room for the Elysée Palace, and, later on, the Grand Salon des Ambassadeurs at La Societé des Nations in Geneva in 1936, which was called the Salon Leleu, and is still in existence.
In the post-war years everything changed; many great family fortunes had been diminished substantially. The affluent classes — who during the golden age had commissioned entire suites — were no longer capable of supporting their former lavish lifestyles. In 1948 Leleu famously said of Le Corbusier’s emphasis on function, “Today, everybody knows and proclaims that the first aspect of a piece of furniture is to be appropriate to its function, […] but I do not believe this to be incompatible with other elements of beauty.” Leleu was not, however, anti-modern and would embrace many of the starker forms of mid-century design; he responded to cultural shifts and emerging technologies with innovative pieces which incorporated glass, metal and synthetic “beka” lacquer (a plastic-based formula related to Bakelite, developed by Sain et Tambuté). Sometimes the choices reflected both stylistic and pragmatic concerns, such as in the appearance of metal legs. Mother-of-pearl replaced ivory, and less-expensive wood veneers were used. The Leleus’ also implemented new ways of selling their designs, creating a “diffusion” line, which, while not cheap, was more affordable than the custom-made pieces that were an integral part of grand pre-war interiors projects (Production was still small, with perhaps five to ten editions of a given design made). The company’s palette of materials may have expanded with time, but Leleu's legendary technique and impeccable attention to detail never wavered.
By the 1950’s, Maison Leleu were manufacturing a very different style of furniture — simple linear designs, often in bright colours and making brilliant use of new and novel materials. In 1957 Leleu was engaged by a prominent South American financier to furnish the interiors of the rez-de-chaussé of Villa Médy Roc in Cap d’Antibes, which called for pieces of a monumental scale. Leleu’s designs for Médy Roc have been referred to as “a celebration of French savoir-faire”; Lie-de-vin lacquer vitrines rest on patinated metal bases, cabinets glimmer with mother of pearl marquetry and enormous gilt consoles are topped with églomisé mirror — a proud reissuing of 1930’s design that definitively launched the company’s evolving style into a new era. (Médy Roc remains immortalized in several films, including Georges Lautner’s Les Seins de Glace (“the breasts of ice”)). That the decor of Médy Roc remained intact for more than half a century before the collection was finally sold off is testament to the timeless beauty of Leleu’s work. The transition from the later 1950s into the 60s was a particularly effervescent time for Leleu, with projects including the ocean liner SS France, a flagship of the French art de vivre and numerous private projects, including the villa of Tunisia’s president, Habib Bourguiba.
Cabinet designed for the Villa Médy Roc in Cap d’Antibes (1957) by Jules Leleu Image c/o Maison Gerard
In 1960, Pierre Frilet (a successful entrepreneur, who made his fortune through Linguaphone) approached Leleu to design the interiors of his expansive apartment on the Avenue Foch in Paris; the collection was remarkable in that Frilet empowered Leleu to purchase on his behalf, significant Leleu pieces of previous decades (many from as early as 1948), including a pair of shagreen commodes with coral-red lacquered tops. After the death of the Leleu patriarch in 1961 Andre and Jean took the helm of their father’s business. This changeover gave birth to a new era with the design house experiencing a true renaissance; with their new designs, the brothers managed to pay tribute to Leleu’s legacy while simultaneously forging ahead in a bold, fresh direction. Under the impetus of Andre, the company gradually moved from the production of furniture in precious wood finely decorated with floral themes to the manufacture of metal or plastic parts with a refined design. Incorporating aluminium, glass, steel and fiberglass with greater frequency, his furniture took on a sleek functionality never before seen, encouraged, and perhaps inspired by, a new corporate clientele.
Rather more conservative than many of his contemporaries, such as Ruhlmann or Süe et Mare, Leleu was famous for tempering Modernism with classical lines. Whilst it was his reverence for fine craftsmanship that distinguished the company for nearly half a century, each of his three children took on an essential role in defining the business, contributing an equally vital skill. In the post war period, Leleu evolved his design process towards a sharper, less baroque form, gradually deconstructing the classical motifs he relied upon at the start of his career until embracing the linear simplicity of the 1950s International Style. His furniture was much admired for both its classical lines and its modernity – two seeming opposing ideas that Leleu was able to combine flawlessly to create his elegant and refined aesthetic. Although invariably conceived with a reverence for the great French traditions and constants, Leleu’s harmonious designs were always original, never a copy or pastiche, and never veering either to historicism, or to the bizarre (like much of the less accomplished work of his era). Leleu remains one of the most renowned and prolific ébenistes of the Art Deco and mid-century period. “It seems to me,” wrote critic Simonne Ratel in 1927, “…that Jules Leleu is the direct heir to the great French craftsmen, the Boulles, the Rieseners, who conceived furniture as though it were a living being. They then endeavour to bring the body and soul [of the piece] into harmony — the intrinsic beauty of the woods and marbles and the ideal beauty of line and ornamentation. Finally, they believed in adapting the design of their furniture both to its function and the atmosphere of the place it would occupy. In this way their work was formed gradually, making its way toward perfection by a process of evolution.”