The celebrated French furniture maker Louis Majorelle (1859-1926), a leading member of the Ecole de Nancy, was one of the most outstanding and successful exponents of the Art Nouveau style. A remarkably innovative designer, Majorelle was nevertheless a true successor to the great French craftsmen of a century before, utilizing traditional methods of construction while introducing his own striking modern variations.
Majorelle won overnight fame at the 1900 Exposition Universelle in Paris, when the exquisite marquetry effects and gilt-bronze waterlily mounts that graced the furniture in his display captured critical attention-and led to commercial success.
Majorelle conceived of decoration as integral to the overall form of his pieces, and the subordination of ornament to basic architecture and function became a hallmark of his work. He ventured beyond furniture to become a leading designer of ornamental bronze- and ironwork, particularly lighting fixtures, fashioning lamp bases with botanical motifs to complement glass lampshades produced by the famed Daum glassworks.
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