Yves Saint Laurent Pierre Bergé - Christie's

60
Armand-Albert Rateau
A modern link with the antique
Armand-Albert Rateau, born in Paris in 1882,
found his precocious direction in the world of art
when he joined the École Boulle in 1894. After two
years of study, he trained as an apprentice to
famous decorators until 1919 when he set up in
independent practice and secured his first
important commission – for the Blumenthal
mansion in New York.
The table by Rateau that features in the collection
of Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé
corresponds to the model created for the
Blumenthal residence, where it was situated
together with a set of bronze armchairs beside the
indoor swimming pool. Another table of this
design was presented in the Pavillon de l’Elégance
within the Exposition Internationale des Arts
Décoratifs in Paris in 1925. The Blumenthal
commission paved the way for an impressive era
of creativity on the part of this artist whose designs
are quite unlike the work of any of his
contemporaries. Rateau found a number of
significant patrons who greatly appreciated the
distinctive elements of his style and the quality
of execution of his pieces. He followed his own
path and showed no interest in aligning himself
with the grand cabinetmaking and traditional
French stylistic references of creators such as
Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann, nor with the new
synthesis of modern architecture and applied art
advocated by the Union des Artistes Modernes.
His essential originality was in the invention of
novel and supremely elegant forms that drew their
references from Graeco-Roman, Egyptian and
Mesopotamian antiquity. His favoured medium
was green-patinated bronze and his favoured
motifs were stylised plants and animal subjects.
One of his major commissions was the furnishing
and decoration of the Paris home of Jeanne Lanvin
in the period 1920–1925. Here he demonstrated all
his skills in creating engaging environments and
the charming details that were integral to the
effect of his schemes, particularly the stylised
bestiaries that are so strongly associated with his
imagination. In the Lanvin living room was a pair
of bronze and alabaster table lamps aux fennecs, an
idea replicated by Rateau in his own Hôtel
particulier, quai de Conti. In the collection of Yves
Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé we rediscover three
exceptional pieces by Rateau – the table with its
marine motifs, a pair of lamps aux fennecs and an
elegant armchair carved with stylised birds. Such
creations exhibit the sophistication, charm and
imagination that were key to the talent and
deserved success of Armand-Albert Rateau.
ARMAND-ALBERT RATEAU (1882–1938)
An armchair, circa 1920, green painted wood, brown leather upholstered,
36 1 ⁄2 in. (92.5 cm.) high, 31 1 ⁄2 in. (80 cm.) wide, 33 1 ⁄2 in. (85 cm.) deep. Estimate: 360,000–80,000
– Hélin Serre