An Apartment In Paris

Perhaps French artist and designer Armand Albert Rateau (1884-1938) would be better known today if he had taken a booth at the 1925 Exposition of Decorative Arts in Paris. But Rateau declined the invitation to what became a historic occasion in the design world. He was busy creating a Paris apartment with a very special client. Coutouriere Jeanne Lanvin had commissioned Rateau to decorate her home at 16 rue Barbet-de-Jouy in 1924.

Lanvin and Rateau had much in common, both working their way up from positions of apprenticeship to head major design firms. Lanvin began to work at sixteen for a milliner; Rateau was as apprentice ceramicist.

Both would become known for the craftsmanship of their creations. Lanvin's dresses set the standard for exquisite use of beading, embroidery, etc. in the 1920s and 1930s, while Rateau's specialty was the creation of luxurious objects using a deliberately restricted but striking mix of materials such as oak and black marble or alabaster and bronze. His style was forged by disparate influences, the Wierner Werkstaette and visits to the ruins of Pompeii and Herculaneum in Italy.

Lanvin's dyes were another of her trademarks; indeed the designer had opened a dye factory in Nanterre n 1923, producing items in her "Velazquez green" and the eponymous "Lanvin blue", said to be inspired by the blue skies of Fra Angelico's frescoes.


Today, the one familiar example of Rateau's work is his design for the flacon of Lanvin's perfume, Arpege, taken from a drawing of Jeanne and her daughter Margeurite, made by Paul Iribe in 1907.
A recent auction of items from Lanvin's art collection and the sale of a Rateau chair by Christie's, Ltd. in 2004 for nearly $1 million may bring renewed attention to this artistic collaboration.