Jean Prouvé

Hôtel des Ventes Anticthermal, Nancy, March 25, 2001

Dominique Clayssen, Jean Prouvé:  l'idée constructive, Paris 1983, pp. 10, 15, and 167
Anthony Delorenzo, Alan and Christine Counord, Jean Prouvé/Serge Mouille, exh. cat., New York, 1985, pp. 41 and 51
Catherine Coley, Jean Prouvé en Lorraine, Nancy, 1990, pp. 44 and 61
Jean Prouvé:  Constructeur, exh. cat., Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, 1990, pp. 63, 64, and 213
Galeries Jousse Seguin and Enrico Navarra, Jean Prouvé, Paris, 1998, pp. 130, 132, 133, 182, 189, 190, and 223
Peter Sulzer, Jean Prouvé:  Œuvre Complète/Complete Works, Volume 1:  1917-1933, Basel, 1999, cover and cat. nos. 258-262 (for illustrations and discussions of the model and its variants)
Jean Prouvé:  La Biennale di Venezia, Paris, 2000, pp. 40, 79, and 101
Jean Prouvé, 1901-1984:  Constructeur, Paris, 2001, pp. 48-49 and 122
Laurence Allégret and Valérie Vaudou, eds., Jean Prouvé et Paris, Paris, 2001, pp. 141 and 229
François Moulin, Jean Prouvé:  le maître du métal, Strasburg, 2001, n.p.

In 1930 Jean Prouvé entered a competition to furnish the dormitories for the Cité Universitaire in Nancy, and he was awarded a quarter of the rooms.  The production run comprised 55 chairs, 66 shelving units, 60 tables, 54 beds, and an unknown number of armchairs of the model offered here (Sulzer, p. 205).  The furniture was durable and sturdy, and the armchair was popular enough that Prouvé designed a few variants of it for other uses.  The original Cité Universitaire armchair was made of sheet metal with open-channel uprights and canvas arms that did not extend the entire height of the upright.  After 1932, several modifications were made.  In some chairs, the canvas or leather arms completely surrounded the frame, and in others the uprights were constructed with closed, rather than channeled, uprights.  The latter modification was used in sanatorium interiors.  Prouvé also used the chair model in his own home in Nancy.