Maxime Old - Architecte-Décorateur

This first book devoted to Maxime Old retraces the career and work of this great decorator through his participation in Salons and an in-depth study of his notebooks and archives. Born at a time when society was about to undergo unprecedented upheaval, and raised in a tradition of craftsmanship and quality, Maxime Old was a paradoxical and rigorous creator who, while adapting to the stylistic movements of the war and post-war period through to the advent of design, was able to retain his independence and inventive spirit. The son and grandson of cabinet-makers, he studied at the École Boulle before joining Ruhlmann's workshop, and was only twenty when the Compagnie Sud-Transatlantique commissioned him to create a flat for the liner L'Atlantique. The cantilevered brackets that foreshadowed the 1950s, the design for the upholstered chaise longue for the 1936 Salon des artistes décorateurs, and the dining room table in Canadian birch and black glass slab from 1950 illustrate the combination of modernity and classicism that characterises his work and justifies the role of precursor that critics have recognised in his early years. (Dustjacket slightly worn)