Eileen Gray: Irish Designer And A Icon Of Modern Design

Regardless of being lesser recognized than Le Corbusier or Mies van der Rohe, no one could ignore that the Irish stylist Eileen Grayis among the greatest designers of the modern period. Acknowledged as one the top founders of the Modern design movement in the early 20th century, Eileen Gray were among the first to go beyond the conventions of traditional design and pave the way to what is now recognized as the modern furniture style.

Born Kathleen Eileen Moray Gray on August 1878 at Enniscorthy, Ireland, Eileen Gray was the youngest child of the well-to-do Gray clan. James Maclaren Gray, Eileen’s father, was an amateur painter and would often advise her fascination for the arts. In 1896, Gray was given to the well known Slade School of Fine Art of the University College London until her father’s death in 1900. Gray continued her studies at the Académie Julian and the Académie Colarossi in Paris, but returned to London in 1905 to take care of her mother. It was during her residence at London where she met and knew the art of lacquerwork from Seizo Sugawara, a known Japanese lacquer restorer working at the Exposition Universelle in France. Gray’s five years of study under Sugawara would later established with the famous “Block Screen” lacquered wall panels she introducedat Rue de Lota apartment in Paris in 1917.

Possibly the works that Eileen Gray is best known for today is her Bibendum Chair. Made between the years 1917 and 1921, the Bibendum Chair is a red leather chair made up of a series of padded tubes. Gray {called|named] the chair after the Bibendum company mascot of the Michelin tire company, which had a similar rounded shape. The Bibendum chair is noted by many not only for its unconventional design but also for being quite comfortable to use, a feature made to the chair’s interwoven rubber support at the seat and Gray’s plan of soft leather as upholstery.