Page 16 - Architectural Digest - USA (February 2020)

DISCOVERIES

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1 1. BERTRAND LIMBOUR/HOUSE OF PICTURES; 2. © 2014 PHILLIPS AUCTIONEERS LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED; 3. STEPHAN JULLIARD, ARTWORK: ETTORE SOTTSASS © 2020 ARTISTS RIGHTS SOCIETY (ARS), NEW YORK / ADAGP, PARIS; ©NABIL NAHAS; 4. JÉRÔME GALLAND

V illa E.1027, the modernist Côte d’Azur retreat
that Eileen Gray created for herself and Jean
Badovici, both architects—she renowned, he
not so much—in the late 1920s, looks like a
houseboat ready to set sail. A big nautical map
hung in the lovers’ bedroom (it “gives rise to 3
1. A TRANSAT SITS FIRESIDE IN THIS BELGIAN PAVILION,
reverie,” the Irishwoman mused). On the first-floor terrace a low lounge BUILT BY THE ARCHITECT MAARTEN VAN SEVEREN.
evoked the easy-breezy deck chairs of an ocean liner, an effortless pairing of 2. A CIRCA-1930 TRANSAT CHAIR THAT WILL BE SHOWN
AT BARD GRADUATE CENTER STARTING FEBRUARY 29.
comfort (a sling of black canvas; an adjustable headrest) and class (a sleek 3. A BEIRUT HOME BY CLAUDE MISSIR. 4. CHRISTIE’S
sycamore frame). SOLD A MINT-GREEN TRANSAT IN 2001.
Called the Transatlantique (later truncated to Transat), said armchair,
originally created in 1922, emerged as a Gray icon when E.1027 was published 4
in Badovici’s L’Architecture Vivante in 1929. The young maharaja of Indore
commissioned one for his palace bedroom in 1930 (it sold at Phillips in 2014 for
more than $1 million); in 1981, interior designer Andrée Putman placed a pair
in a model room at Lord & Taylor. In 2018, Christie’s sold a calfskin specimen
for more than $1.5 million.
Today, Ecart International, founded by Putman, produces licensed Transat
reproductions (from $17,640 at Ralph Pucci). Gray herself made just 12, in
a range of materials that were “dictated by the recipient and the destination,”
according to Cloé Pitiot, curator at Paris’s Musée des Arts Décoratifs. “Near the
sea, Gray preferred canvas, more resistant to salt and seawater, while for the
maharaja’s bedroom, she chose lacquered wood and leather.” Pitiot has gathered
two original Transats for Eileen Gray, an exhibition that is opening at New
York’s Bard Graduate Center Gallery on February 29.
She describes the Transat as “a call for slowness; a chair for rest,” and it’s an
idea many designers seem to have embraced, employing it most often in spots
built for relaxation, like a beach house in Amagansett by David Netto or Pamela
Shamshiri’s abode above Laurel Canyon. Netto, who calls the design “achingly
beautiful,” loves employing one solo in black leather and lacquer, which, he
says “delivers a shot of glamour in any room.” ralphpucci.net —HANNAH MARTIN

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