Jean Prouve

Jean Prouvé

France, 1901 - 1984

Jean Prouvé is one of the most influential furniture designers of the early modern design movement. Prouvé introduced industrial, engineered modern design aesthetic to interiors in the steel and aluminum furniture he created.

Jean Prouvé was born into an artistic family in Nancy, France; his famous father, Victor Prouvé, collaborated with the great Art Nouveau artists Emile Galle and Louis Majorelle. Prouvé was trained as a metal smith before attending engineering school in Nancy and his intimate knowledge of metal remained the foundation of his work and career. After opening his own workshop in 1923, he began producing modern metal furniture of his own design as well as collaborating with some of the best-known French modern designers of the day, including Le Corbusier and Charlotte Perriand. His shelving units for the dormitories at the Cite Internationale universitaire de Paris, designed with Perriand and the artist Sonia Delaunay in 1952, are perhaps the best-known examples of his collaborative work.

Jean Prouvé strove for the most efficient designs, with such classic results as the Standard Chair, 1934 and the Cite Chair of 1930. Utilizing his innovative method of folding sheet metal, Jean Prouvé designed a series of tables that have the perceived lightness of bridges and the presence of architecture. In the mid 1950s Jean Prouve began devoting his time to the challenges of prefabricated architecture. His own house, which he designed as a prototype, is now considered a major development in prefab housing.