Even for a lot of design aficionados, decorators and
design students, Jean Michel Frank—one of the
most important decorators of the 20th Century—
is not a household name.
Revered by international designers and collectors
all over the world, Frank was decorator to society’s
crème de la crème, both in Paris and America,
though only for a very brief period: from the mid1920’s to 1941.
RemembeRing…
Jean
Michel
Frank
(1895-1941)
To this day, the rooms he did for the Vicomtesse Marie-Laure de
Noailles in Paris, Nelson Rockefeller in New York, and Georges Born
in Buenos Aires, just to name a select few, remain some of the most
iconic and unforgettable spaces in the history of interior design.
Ironically, iterations of his Parsons table, which he designed with the
students of the Paris branch of the famous New York-based school,
can be found in contemporary design collections ranging from the
like of Hermès, to mass producers like Ikea and West Elm.
This past September, while in Paris for the Biennale des Antiquaries, I
visited for the hundredth time the tiny Guerlain shop located off the
Place Vendome, designed by Frank and his partner Adolphe Chanaux.
Every year, on my frequent visits to Paris, the shop is one of my first
stops upon arrival. The excuse is to get Guerlain’s Eau de Cologne
Impériale, but the real reason is to admire for a few minutes this
temple of travertine “boiseries,” and to take in Alberto Giacometti’s
plaster, shell-shaped pendants that were commissioned by Frank.
I first discovered Frank’s work in the mid-seventies (long before I
began st Y Z[