Dunand, Jean [Jules, John]
(b Lancy, 20 May 1877; d Paris, 7 June 1947).

French sculptor, metalworker, painter and designer, of Swiss birth. He trained as a sculptor from 1891 to 1896 at the Ecole des Arts Industriels in Geneva and in 1897 was awarded a scholarship by the city of Geneva that enabled him to continue his studies in Paris, where Jean Dampt, a sculptor from Burgundy, introduced him to the idea of producing designs for interior decoration and furnishing. Dunand worked on the winged horses on the bridge of Alexandre III in Paris (in situ), while simultaneously continuing his research into the use of metal in the decorative arts. His first pieces of dinanderie (decorative brassware) were exhibited at the Salon de la Societe Nationale des Beaux-Arts of 1904 in Paris. In 1906 he gave up sculpture in order to devote his time to making dinanderie and later to lacquering. His first vases (e.g. 'Wisteria' vase, gilt brass with cloisonne enamels, 1912; Alain Lesieure priv. col., see Marcilhac, pl. 138) reflect Art Nouveau forms, but he quickly adopted the geometric forms of Art Deco in his work. In 1912 the Japanese artist Seizo Sugawara asked him to solve a problem concerning dinanderie, and in exchange he was given instruction in lacquering. From then on he produced vases, folding screens, doors and other furniture (e.g. Geometric Decor, black and red lacquered screen, priv. col., see Marcilhac, pl. 46). Around 1925 he started to use egg shell on lacquer. Different effects were produced by varying the size of the pieces and by using the inside or the outside of the shell. He used this technique for both portraits and Cubist compositions (e.g. tray; Geneva, Mus. A. & Hist.). He worked closely with contemporary artists and designers, especially the furniture designer Jacques-Emile Ruhlmann and the couturiers Madeleine Vionnet and Paul Poiret. His jewellery designs demonstrate a preference for pure, geometric forms, with regular black and red lacquer dots on the metal surface.

See also France, fig. 84.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Jean Dunand, Jean Goulden (exh. cat., ed. Y. Brunhammer; Paris, Gal. Luxembourg, 1973)
V. Arwas: Art Deco (London, 1978)
F. Marcilhac: Jean Dunand: His Life and Works (London, 1991)

ANNE WINTER-JENSEN

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