Jean Pascaud
Jean Pascaud (1903-1996) was a French designer and decorator, recognized for bespoke furniture and interiors of pronounced luxury.
Pascaud worked within the Ruhlmann tradition, with its emphasis on opulence, fine craftsmanship and materials of the highest quality. His career ran for more than five decades and stands as a measure of how durable the appeal of French Art Deco proved to be.
Biography
A graduate of the Ćcole Centrale des Arts et Manufactures in 1924, Pascaud moved from engineering to the applied arts after seeing the 1925 International Exhibition of Decorative Arts in Paris. The rise of Art Deco turned his attention to furniture, and he produced his first pieces in 1927. By the 1930s his reputation was established, and the Grand Prix at the 1937 International Exposition in Paris confirmed his standing as a master of luxury design.
Prestigious commissions followed in sequence: the interiors of the ocean liners The Normandy and The Pasteur, major projects for the French Ministry of Education, and the French embassies in Czechoslovakia, Sweden and Mexico. Pascaud also contributed to monumental works, among them the Place de Landhaus in Innsbruck in 1948 and the Col de l'Arlberg in 1949. His work is read alongside that of his contemporaries Jacques Adnet (1900-1984) and AndrƩ Arbus (1903-1969) as emblematic of French Art Deco.
Models and collaborations
Pascaud designed for a specific room, a specific client or a specific architectural setting, in the tradition of luxury craftsmanship. He drew on rare and exotic materials, including Macassar ebony, ivory, sycamore and black lacquer, and was particularly drawn to the natural beauty of wood grain. His work also made use of marquetry in bronze and silver, and of parchment and sharkskin.
Purity of form and restrained elegance govern Pascaud's furniture, which was often set off by ornamental gilded bronze motifs and finished to an exacting standard. He collaborated frequently with other artists on pieces that were functional and deeply artistic at once.