Large bowl
With a very distinct avant-garde style, the two friends Desnet and René Nauny created interiors for the Parisian elite under the name Maison Desny between the years 1927–33 in Paris. Prominent artists and designers such as Andre Masson, Alberto and Diego Giacometti, and Madame Djo-Bourgeois, were often contracted to collaborate on larger projects. However, today it is for their metalware objects that the firm is most celebrated. This large bowl is fitted in a rigorously modern base. The flat semi-circle that fits within the five supports are representative of the geometric configurations, architectural elements, and perpendicular shapes and planes that set Maison Desny’s pieces apart from other modernist designs of the interwar period. The partnership was cut short in 1933 when Mr. Desnet died. Their firm closed shortly thereafter. Nauny continued his design practice as a jewelry designer under the name Hippocampe.
Artwork Details
- Title: Large bowl
- Designer: Maison Desny (French, 1927–1933)
- Date: ca. 1927–33
- Medium: Silver alloy
- Dimensions: 5 3/8 × 13 3/16 × 11 in., 4.2 lb. (13.7 × 33.5 × 27.9 cm, 1.9 kg)
- Classification: Silver
- Credit Line: Gift of Jacqueline Loewe Fowler, 2020
- Object Number: 2021.54.32
- Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art
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Maison Desny
ca. 1927–33
Joseph Garino
ca. 1902
Jean Dupas
Jacques-Charles Champigneulle
1934
Multiple artists/makers
ca. 1910
Henri Matisse
1903; this cast, probably 1930
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