Jacques-Émile RUHLMANN
(b Paris, 28 Aug 1879; d Paris, 15 Nov 1933)

French furniture designer. He was the son of a Protestant house-painter from Alsace. His early furniture, exhibited at the Salon d'Automne in 1910, displayed the rectilinear forms and fine craftsmanship that were to characterize his style. After World War I he founded with Pierre Laurent the Etablissement Ruhlmann & Laurent which produced luxury furniture. By the mid-1920s the company had diversified into other aspects of interior decoration, including lighting,

textiles, carpets, upholstery, japanning and mirrorwork. Ruhlmann's contribution to the Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels Modernes of 1925 in Paris illustrated his importance as a major exponent of the Art Deco style. He was responsible for the study in the Pavillon d'un Ambassadeur and was also represented by his own pavilion, the Hotel d'un Collectionneur, designed by Pierre Patout, which exemplified the emerging role of the interior decorator as an ensemblier. The setting contained items by such designers as Leon Vagnet, Emile Gaudissart (b 1872), Pierre Emile Legrain, Jean Dunand and Jean Puiforcat.

Ruhlmann was the foremost cabinetmaker of the 20th century to perpetuate the 18th-century French skills of marquetry and veneering. His designs for furniture are characterized by balanced proportion and smooth refinement. He favoured such smooth, dark woods as macassar-ebony and amboyna ornamented with ivory inlays in contrasting white, grey and silver tones (e.g. armoire, c. 1922; Paris, Mus. A. Dec.; see Art deco, fig. 2). His decorative motifs, even his floral

configurations, were affected by a sense of geometric stylization. He supervised the execution of his designs through his workshops, and each piece was stamped in the traditional manner with the maker's mark. During the 1930s, under the influence of Modernism, Ruhlmann experimented with such

new materials as chromium-plated steel---often as a replacement for ivory---and black lacquer. One of his last commissions (1932) was a desk of ebony and chrome for the study of the Maharaja of Indore (sold Monte Carlo, Sotheby's, 25 May 1980, lot 195). Contemporary journals discussed Ruhlmann's approach to design, and Harmonies: Interieurs de Ruhlmann, with 54 plates of his drawings, was published in Paris in 1924. A retrospective exhibition of his work was held in 1934 in the Pavillon de Marsan in the Louvre, Paris.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Janneau: 'D'Andre-Charles Boulle a Ruhlmann', Rev. A. Anc. & Mod. (Dec 1934)
F. Camard: Ruhlmann: Master of Art Deco (London, 1984)

CLAIRE BRISBY

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