PIERRE LE-TAN | SUITE OF CHILDREN’S PLAYROOM FURNITURE

Commissioned directly from the artist by the present owners, 2006

Delphine and Reed Krakoff, Houses That We Dreamt Of: The Interiors of Delphine and Reed Krakoff, New York, 2017, pp. 30-31 (for the pair of chandeliers illustrated) 

This playroom suite created by Pierre Le-Tan (1950-2019) provides a playful and spectacular introduction to the whimsical world of the French artist. A celebrated painter, illustrator and designer, Le-Tan worked across a variety of mediums to create a unique visual style that relied on simple and gentle lines to create fully-realized fantaisies. He is perhaps best known for his New Yorker cover illustrations, his long-term collaboration with Patrick Modiano, and set designs for film and theater. He also created furniture pieces like the present ensemble, though in very limited number, and rarely gave a flesh to the enigmatic interiors that he laid out on paper.

The genesis of the present suite can be traced to Reed Krakoff’s professional collaboration with Le-Tan, who had been hired by luxury fashion company Coach to create illustrations. Commissioned directly from the Krakoffs in 2006 for their children’s bedroom in their Manhattan home, the suite was created over a six-month period in the artist’s Paris studio, after which the pieces were immediately sent to New York for installation. The furniture comprising this group feature colorful details, sumptuous materials and exquisite drawings painted directly onto the wooden surfaces. The dresser especially presents with a wide array of illustrations, including stylized stars, tubes of paint, reading glasses, tarot cards, and letters sent to and from the present owners, including one from Duchess Debo Devonshire dated May 2008.

This unique body of work represents one of Pierre Le-Tan’s latest commissions, in the lineage of other creations specifically made for esteemed clients. Such projects include the design of furniture for his daughter Olympia’s showroom in Paris in 2014 and special furniture commissions for actress Catherine Deneuve and Pauline Savier, the sister of jewelry designer Victoire de Castellane. One of his best-known commissions include Jean Cocteau’s Parisian pied-à-terre in the Palais Royal, which he furnished with trompe l’oeil wallpapers depicting Cocteau’s famous friends such as Colette, Christian "Bebè" Bérard and Jean Desbordes.

One can see similar visual and pictorial strategies used in the present suite, which displays tremendously imaginative trompe l’oeil features and carefully executed drawings and decorations. Together, these unique objects represent unique and multi-faceted aspects of Pierre Le-Tan’s artistic practice and constitute an unprecedented auction offering for the artist.