The man himself, photographed in his home.
Majorelle's Factory
The Majorelle firm's factory was designed by famous École de Nancy architect Lucien Weissenburger (1860 – 1929) and located at 6, rue du Vieil-Aître in the western part of Nancy. In the 1880s Majorelle turned out pastiches of Louis XV furniture styles, which he exhibited in 1894 at the Exposition d'Art Décoratif et Industriel [Exposition of Decorative and Industrial Art] in Nancy, but the influence of the glass- and furniture-maker Emile Galle (1846 – 1904) inspired him to take his production in new directions. Beginning in the 1890s, Majorelle's furniture, embellished with inlays, took their inspiration from nature: stems of plants, waterlily leaves, tendrils, dragonflies. Before 1900 he added a metalworking atelier to the workshops, to produce drawerpulls and mounts in keeping with the fluid lines of his woodwork. His studio also was responsible for the ironwork of balconies, staircase railings, and exterior details on many buildings in Nancy at the turn of the twentieth century. Often collaborating on lamp designs with the Daume Freres glassworks of Nancy, he helped make the city one of the European centers of Art Nouveau. At the apogee of the Belle Epoque, during the 1900 Paris World's Fair, Majorelle's designs triumphed and drew him an international clientele. By 1910, Majorelle had opened shops for his furniture in Nancy, Paris, Lyons, and Lille.
Villa Majorelle Today:
Majorelle died in Nancy in 1926. After his death, his family, whose fortunes had been damaged severely by the war, could no longer afford to live in the Villa Majorelle, and the house and much of the outlying property were sold off in parcels. Majorelle's factories closed in 1931. Eventually, the villa went through several architectural modifications (aside from those Majorelle himself made while he resided there), including the addition of a concrete bunker near the rear and the enclosure of the front terrasse. The large stone fence and gate that surrounded the property were eventually reduced to a small piece around the house, which itself went through various uses and owners over the next century. Today, the Villa has been acquired by the city of Nancy, which is undertaking a long-term project of renovation and restoration.
The Villa Majorelle
In 1898, Majorelle hired Henri Sauvage (1873 – 1932), a young Parisian architect, to collaborate with Weissenburger on the building of his own house, known as the Villa Jika (after the acronym of Majorelle's wife's maiden name), but now popularly known as simply the Villa Majorelle, in Nancy. Majorelle, like many industrialists in Nancy, located his house across the street from his factory, but in a relatively new area of town, the large parcel of land which it occupied made it seem like a veritable country estate.
Sauvage and Weissenburger's three-story design for the villa represents the true flowering of Art Nouveau architecture in Nancy, with multiple bow windows and floral motifs covering the exterior. Majorelle himself produced the ironwork, furniture, and the interior woodwork, such as the grand staircase. Majorelle located his own personal studio on the third floor under a gabled roof, and included a huge arched window combled together with spandrels that evoke the branches of a tree or flower. Most of the floral motifs seen in the house use the forms of the monnaie-du-pape plant. In addition, Majorelle employed Jaques Gruber to create the original stained-glass for the house, and on the interior, the artisans created impressive painted friezes in the dining room, which contains a large ceramic Art Nouveau fireplace.
Majorelle's Style
His early work was in a Rococo style but as a member of the Nancy School he was influenced by Gallé and adopted Art Nouveau forms, creating an individual, elegant style. He favoured exotic and strongly grained woods, such as mahogany, and often used gilt bronze mounts. Like Gallé's, his decoration was based on sinuous forms and natural motives.
Majorelle had become so successful that he was one of the main producer of Art Nouveau furniture and certainly the most famous.
Wood and Metalworking
In 1894, Louis Majorelle created a complete new collection models using inlays inspired by naturalism and symbolism. Particularly well-known as a cabinet maker, Louis Majorelle produced two main types of furniture : a luxury furniture collection alongside with a less expensive one.
Louis Majorelle introduced metal working in his workshops to produce bronzes as furniture decoration, and, in 1896 in collaboration with Daum, for use as lights. His numerous activities led him to open a number of retail shops. And in 1901 he was appointed vice-president of the famous School of Nancy.
Early Life:
In 1861, his father, Auguste Majorelle (1825 – 1879), who himself was a furniture designer and manufacturer, moved the family from Toul to Nancy. There, Louis finished his initial studies before moving to Paris in 1877 for two years of work at the Ecole des Beaux Arts. On the death of his father, he cut short his studies and returned to Nancy to oversee the family's manufactories of furniture.
Subject:
Louis Majorelle (Toul, 1859-1926) was a decorator and furniture designer who manufactured his own designs, in the French tradition of the Ebeniste. He was one of the outstanding designers of furniture in the Art Nouveau style, and after 1901 formally served as one of the vice-presidents of the Ecole de Nancy.