PIERRE CHAREAU (1883-1950)
Lot 106

PIERRE CHAREAU (1883-1950)

AN 'SN 37' ARMCHAIR, CIRCA 1923

Closed17 December 2015

Price Realised

USD 106,250

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PIERRE CHAREAU (1883-1950)
AN 'SN 37' ARMCHAIR, CIRCA 1923
French walnut, upholstery
26 in. (66 cm.) high

Louis Moret, Martigny, Switzerland.
Delorenzo Gallery, New York.

Specialist note

cf. M. Vellay, K. Frampton, Pierre Chareau, Paris, 1984, pp. 70 and 73;
B. B. Taylor, Pierre Chareau Designer and Architect, Cologne, 1992, p. 54;
Exhibition catalogue, Pierre Chareau Architecte, un Art Intérieur, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, 1993, pp. 127, 187, 191, 193.


The present chair was originally part of the private collection of Louis Moret. Moret had been given Chareau's name by the architect Alberto Sartoris as he planned to study architecture and hoped to find a mentor. Moret contacted Chareau to see if he would accept him as a student, but Chareau declined at first. It was only after Moret presented him with a drawing of the hotel room he was staying at, including its furnishings, that he was finally accepted. Moret was to remain the only student Pierre Chareau ever had. He met with Chareau twice a week for one year, and eventually settled in Switzerland where he continued an ongoing relationship with the architect. He oversaw the execution, promotion and retailing of Chareau's furniture in Switzerland and today the Moret Foundation in Martigny, Switzerland, preserves many of Chareau's furniture drawings.