Pierre Jeanneret (1896-1967)

Pierre Jeanneret was born in Geneva, where eventually he attended the School of Fine Arts (Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Geneva).[ As a young student, he was a brilliant painter, artist and architect, greatly influenced by Charles Edouard Jeanneret (Le Corbusier), his cousin and mentor for life. In 1922, the Jeanneret cousins set up an architectural practice together. From 1927 to 1937 they worked together with Charlotte Perriand at the Le Corbusier-Pierre Jeanneret studio, on rue de Sèvres in Paris. In 1929, the trio founded the Union of Modern Artists / “Union Des Artistes Modemes”: (UAM). The cousins later designed many buildings, including a number of villas and vacation houses,][4] and in addition renovated existing buildings as well. In 1950, at the invitation of Nehru, the two men were the principal project managers for the construction of the city of Chandigarh, designed to become the capital of the State of Punjab after the Indo-Pakistan war. Today, the city contains the World’s most important concentration of the works of Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret. For fifteen years, Pierre Jeanneret devoted all his efforts to that project. On a surface larger than that of the city of Paris, for a population that today exceeds one million inhabitants, what was involved was building not only a business district, an industrial sector and an administrative quarter, but also thoroughfares and residential neighborhoods. Pierre Jeanneret surrounded himself with a team of young Indian architects. He ended up by settling in Chandigarh and, in questioning his own ideas and conceptions, he often adopted the Indian viewpoint. For himself and Le Corbusier he summed up the meaning of that thoroughly excessive adventure with the striking words: “In a way, Chandigarh was for the two of us a clearing in the human jungle”. He was thus forever placing himself at the crossroads of his two main concerns: designing objects for inhabitants and asserting the power of invention as the universal value of the modern movement. He only left Chandigarh in 1965 because of sickness, and he died a few months later in Geneva, in 1967. On his death, 4 December 1967, in accordance with his will, Jeanneret's ashes were scattered in Chandigarh's Sukhna Lake.

Charlotte Perriand (1903-1999)

Charlotte Perriand is the most important female designer from the 1950’s to the late 1970’s. She started her career out on her own but joined Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret studio between 1927 and 1937. She was in charge of designing all the furniture where she designed many of the most iconic design pieces of the 20th century. In 1940, she traveled to Japan as an official advisor for industrial design to the Ministry for Trade and Industry. While in Japan she advised the government on raising the standards of design in Japanese industry to develop products for the West. Since then, her style has been strongly influenced by Japanese design. Because she always liked spending time in the mountains, walking and skiing, she spent the end of her life in the French Alps. She worked on many important real-estate programs in Meribel and Les Arcs (French Alps ski resorts). For those resorts, she created many different programs. In Les Arcs, all the furniture for the various residences, hotels, restaurants were made according to her design.

Jacques Blin (1920-1995)

Jacques Blin is one of the most influential French ceramic artists. Not yet as famous as some other 1960’s ceramic artists such as George Jouve, he can be considered as one of the new design kings of the 1950’s/1960’s/1970’s. He owned his own studio where he was always employing a number craftsmen: one or two making the shapes, with a few others finishing the pieces with colors and/or drawings. The workshop was able to produce quite big quantities. Jacques Blin studio has produced many different pieces: lamps, cups, ashtrays, vases, pots, even tables with a ceramic top. His pieces are quite easy to recognize thanks to the drawings of birds, animals or other motifs; also thanks to the colors such as light blue, or green, or beige that Blin was often using. Jacques Blin was also influential among the French ceramic artists: in 1971, he became the president of the French Ceramic association: during 20 years, he was very active for promoting French ceramic outside France. Jacques Blin pieces are signed at the bottom of each piece.

Georges Pelletier (1938 - )

Georges Pelletier was born in Belgium but he always worked in France where he moved in 1951. Many influential collectors are now re-discovering his work. He was a close friend of many influential French painters such as Fernand Leger. He opened his own studio in 1961. He mainly produced ceramic lamps, distributed by the French “Bobois” lightning company. His style is easy to recognize with -The rounded shapes he always uses -The small ceramic balls or ceramic motifs that he integrates in his lamps, fixed with thin metal wires -The fact that many of his lamps have 2 bulbs: one inside the lamp body/stand (which produce beautiful projections from the lamp when the lamp is lighted), and one on top as with normal lamps Georges Pelletier has a nice palette of colors with beige/brown/white colors, sometimes adding some touches of gold. His pieces are not signed. Some Georges Pelletier designs are now being re-released: but old vintage pieces from the 1960’s/1970’s are much nicer. We only sell vintage pieces.