'Ours Polaire' sofa
Designer
Jean Royère
Year
1950s
Design Museum Section
French Design Icons
Categories
Sofas
Designheroes ID
47789
Auction House
Phillips
Headquarter
New York, United States
Availability
sold
Condition
pre-owned/vintage
Sale name
Design
Sale Location
New York, United States
'Ours Polaire' sofa
Original fabric upholstery, cherry wood feet, ash internal frame.
1950s
30 x 94 x 46 1/2 in. (76.2 x 238.8 x 118.1 cm)
Catalog essay
Jean Royère first designed the Ours Polaire sofa for the rooms he occupied in his mother’s apartment at 234 rue du Faubourg-Saint-Honoré on the occasion of re-decorating her residence in 1947. This example now resides in the collection of the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris. Later that year he presented the sofa at La Résidence française, an exhibition organized by the publication Art et Industrie. The sofa became ubiquitous in Royère’s interiors of the late 1950s and early 1960s. Today it is recognized as one of his most iconic and sought-after designs.
The soft round form of the Ours, which practically eliminates the typical parts and structure of most seating in favor of one continuous curve, is in keeping with Royère’s whimsical aesthetic as well as the biomorphic style already in full force in the 1950s. Yet while other designers worked with new materials and techniques to achieve their organic forms—Eero Saarinen’s fiberglass Womb chair and the Eameses' use of molded plywood come to mind—the Ours relied on traditional cabinetmaking methods to achieve its novel shape. Photographs of an Ours frame, likely taken in the courtyard of an artisan in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine, show the complex wooden understructure that served as the initial armature. To this carcass a metal frame padded with horsehair further defined the form, which was finally covered by the fabric upholstery, typically a plush velvet sourced from Italy.
The present lot retains the original thick red upholstery, a color which Royère particularly favored for this design. He used it for the Ours sofas he created for the French legation in Helsinki, depicted in a beautifully rendered gouache in the collection of the Musée des Arts Décoratifs (1950), as well as for the salon at the Maison de France in Rio de Janeiro (1955-1960).
The soft round form of the Ours, which practically eliminates the typical parts and structure of most seating in favor of one continuous curve, is in keeping with Royère’s whimsical aesthetic as well as the biomorphic style already in full force in the 1950s. Yet while other designers worked with new materials and techniques to achieve their organic forms—Eero Saarinen’s fiberglass Womb chair and the Eameses' use of molded plywood come to mind—the Ours relied on traditional cabinetmaking methods to achieve its novel shape. Photographs of an Ours frame, likely taken in the courtyard of an artisan in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine, show the complex wooden understructure that served as the initial armature. To this carcass a metal frame padded with horsehair further defined the form, which was finally covered by the fabric upholstery, typically a plush velvet sourced from Italy.
The present lot retains the original thick red upholstery, a color which Royère particularly favored for this design. He used it for the Ours sofas he created for the French legation in Helsinki, depicted in a beautifully rendered gouache in the collection of the Musée des Arts Décoratifs (1950), as well as for the salon at the Maison de France in Rio de Janeiro (1955-1960).
Literature
"La Résidence Française," Art et Industrie, no. 8, June 1947, p. 20
René Chavance, "Les aménagements nouveaux de Jean Royère et les réflexions qu'ils inspirent," Mobilier et Décoration, no. 8, November 1956, p. 21
Jean Royère, décorateur à Paris, exh. cat., Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, 1999, throughout
Galerie Jacques Lacoste and Galerie Patrick Seguin, Jean Royère, Volumes 1 and 2, Paris, 2012, throughout
Pierre-Emmanuel Martin-Vivier, Jean Royère, Paris, 2017, throughout
René Chavance, "Les aménagements nouveaux de Jean Royère et les réflexions qu'ils inspirent," Mobilier et Décoration, no. 8, November 1956, p. 21
Jean Royère, décorateur à Paris, exh. cat., Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, 1999, throughout
Galerie Jacques Lacoste and Galerie Patrick Seguin, Jean Royère, Volumes 1 and 2, Paris, 2012, throughout
Pierre-Emmanuel Martin-Vivier, Jean Royère, Paris, 2017, throughout
Provenance
Galerie Patrick Seguin, Paris
Acquired from the above by the present owner
Acquired from the above by the present owner
Object
'Ours Polaire' sofa
Designer
Jean Royère
Year
1950s
Design Museum Section
French Design Icons
Categories
Sofas
Designheroes ID
47789
Auction House
Phillips
Headquarter
New York, United States
Availability
sold
Condition
pre-owned/vintage
Sale name
Design
Sale Location
New York, United States
