Jean-Michel Frank
Jean-Michel Frank (February 28, 1895–1941) was a French interior designer for minimalist interiors decorated with plain-lined but sumptuous furniture made of luxury materials, such as
shagreen,
mica, and intricate
straw marquetry. Jean-Michel Frank was born in Paris, a son of Léon Frank, a banker, and his wife and cousin, the former Nanette Frank. From 1904, he attended the
Lycée Janson de Sailly in Paris. From 1920 to 1925 he traveled and visited the world. In Venice he met the cosmopolitan society that gathered around Stravinsky and Diaghilev. Around 1927, Eugenia Errázuriz revealed to him the beauty of 18th Century styles and her own modern, minimalist esthetic, and he became her disciple. He then got in contact with a Parisian decorator called Adolphe Chanaux to do his apartment in the Rue de Verneuil. During the 1930's he worked with students at the Paris Atelier, now known as Parsons Paris School of Art and Design, where he developed the famous Parsons Table. In 1932, with Chanaux, he opened a shop at number 140 Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré. This was to be the consecration of ten years of collaboration, when he decorated for the Rockefellers and Guerlains. During the winter of 1939-40, he left France for Argentina. In Argentina, Jean-Michel Frank worked with his old friend and business associate Ignacio Pirovano on several important private and commercial projects.[1] Jean-Michel Frank kept his private apartment in Buenos Aires on the top floor of the company of which he was the Artistic Director[2] in Argentina, COMTE SA. This building was located on the corner of Florida Street and Marcelo T. De Alvear Avenue.[3] He also visited many of his clients in Buenos Aires including the Born family[4] whose mansion in the northern suburbs of Buenos Aires remains his single most important project. The entire collection is still intact and in-place in precisely the manner that Jean-Michel Frank conceived it.
In 1941, Frank made a trip to New York. Sadly overcome by depression he committed suicide by throwing himself from the window of a Manhattan apartment building, leaving all his personal possessions in his apartment in Buenos Aires.
Joseph Osborne
Co-founder Academy of Inspiration
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