JEAN-MICHEL FRANK | SIDE CHAIR

Commissioned directly from the artist by Charles Templeton Crocker, San Francisco, 1928

Collection of Peter Brant

Delorenzo Gallery, New York

"Une décoration française à San Francisco chez M. Templeton Crocker," Art et Industrie, May 1930, p. 15 (for a period photograph of the model illustrated in the home of Templeton Crocker)

Alastair Duncan, Art Deco, London, 1988, p. 27 (for a related model)

Léopold Diego Sanchez, Jean-Michel Frank, Paris, 1997, pp. 186-187 (for related models)

Pierre-Emmanuel Martin-Vivier, Jean-Michel Frank, Paris, 2006, p. 130 (for the above mentioned period photograph of the home of Templeton Crocker)

Laure Verchère, Jean-Michel Frank, New York, 2018, p. 182 (for the above mentioned period photograph of the home of Templeton Crocker)

This lot is offered together with a certificate of authenticity from the Comité Jean-Michel Frank.

The interior design for the San Francisco penthouse of celebrated American librettist and explorer Charles Templeton Crocker provided Jean-Michel Frank with an opportunity to experiment with new design concepts and materials. For this project, Frank worked in conjunction with Jean Dunand and Pierre Legrain, each of whom were assigned to the creation of specific rooms within the apartment. Based on period photographs, the present lot was likely included in Crocker’s study, where the walls and ceilings were also fully covered in straw marquetry complementing the room’s chic and erudite atmosphere. The present chair clearly held great appeal for Frank, who used the same model to furnish the dining room of Robert Chevalier’s residence in Épinal, France. Its elegant proportions, sleek lines and rich materials make this chair a quintessential design by Frank.