Jean Prouv

1 Biography
1.1 Early years
Prouv was born in Paris, France, the second of seven
children of the artist Victor Prouv and the pianist Marie
Duhamel.[1] The Prouvs belonged to a lively artistic circle, which included the glass artist Emile Gall, and the
furniture designer Louis Majorelle.[2] Jean grew up surrounded by the ideals and energy of l'cole de Nancy,
the art collective to which his father belonged. Its goals
were to make art readily accessible, to forge links between
art and industry, as well as between art and social consciousness.

Prefabricated petrol station by Jean Prouv

1.2 Middle years

Between 1914 and 1917, Jean Prouv spent three years
in the school of ne arts of Nancy. Then, he was rst apprenticed to a blacksmith, mile Robert in Enghien (near
Paris), and then to the parisian metal workshop of Aldabert Szabo. In Nancy in 1923 he opened what would
be the rst in a string of his own workshops and studios.
He produced wrought iron lamps, chandeliers, hand rails
and began designing furniture like his Chaise inclinable
of 1924.[3] As a craftsman in wrought iron, he was commisionned between 1923 and 1939 by local architects as
Jean Bourgon, Pierre Le Bourgeois, Raphal Oudeville or
Alfred Thomas to contribute to their Art deco projects.
He abandoned gradually the decorative style of that time
to prefer smooth surfaces of folded metal plates. He used
this material to design storefronts, elevators or furniture
(for student housing in 1932, for example).[4]
Jean Prouv was also involved in the activity of the
Comit Nancy-Paris between 1923 and 1927 with the architect Jacques Andr or the painter Etienne Cournault.
He became a member of the committee in 1926.[5]
Chairs by Jean Prouv

He supplied the gates for the Verdun Memorial in 1928

and various parts for a number of buildings in Paris,
Jean Prouv (8 April 1901 23 March 1984) was a including those designed by Robert Mallet-Stevens, for
the priFrench metal worker, self-taught architect and designer. whom he produced the railings and gratings for
[6]
vate
mansions
in
Rue
Mallet-Stevens
in
1926.
He is also designated as constructor. His main achievement was transferring manufacturing technology from in- In 1930 Prouv helped establish the Union of Modern
dustry to architecture, without losing aesthetic qualities. Artists whose manifesto read, We like logic, balance and
His design skills were not limited to one discipline. Dur- purity. Although he shaped his public image around the
ing his career Jean Prouv was involved in architectural idea that he was not married to a specic aesthetic, the
design, industrial design, structural design and furniture tenets of l'cole de Nancy were certainly a powerful
design.
inuence on his body of work. I was raised, Prouv
1

1 BIOGRAPHY

says, in a world of artists and scholars, a world which

nourished my mind.
Prouv opened the successful Ateliers Jean Prouv" in
1931 and began collaborating with French architects
Eugne Beaudoin and Marcel Lods on projects such as
the Maison du Peuple in Clichy, an aviation club and an
army camp. He also collaborated with Charlotte Perriand
and Pierre Jeanneret on a variety of furniture designs.
The war kept Ateliers in business manufacturing bicycles and a stove called Pyrobal that could burn on any
fuel. He favored the public sector in the growing areas
of health, education and administration, which reected
a social ideal but also oered the economies of scale.
By 1936 he was producing a catalogue of standard models for hospitals, schools and oces. The potential for
mass production inspired Prouv to develop and patent
industrial products using folded sheet metal for the construction of buildings. These included movable partitioning, metal doors and elevator cages.[7] When the French
government announced the initiation of paid vacations
for workers, Prouv responded with the BLPS (1937
39), a prefabricated steel vacation home. Weighing less
than two tons, the 3.3 square meter (35.5 square feet)
structure could be put up or taken down by ve workers in four to ve hours.[8] In 1939 he designed portable
barracks for the French army.[9] Later, Ateliers Jean
Prouv" were commissioned by the Reconstruction Ministry to mass-produce frame houses for refugees. At a
time when cheap, speedily built housing was needed all
over the world, Prouv was recognized as a leader in the
eld, alongside the North American designer R. Buckminster Fuller.[2]
During the war Prouv was also politically active as a
member of the French Resistance and he was recognized
for this involvement after the war by being named mayor
of Nancy. He was also made a member of the Advisory
Assembly after Liberation and made the Departmental
Inspector for Technical Education.
In the period after World War II (193945) there was increased interest in using new methods and materials for
mass production of furniture. Manufacturers of materials
such as formica, plywood, aluminum, and steel sponsored
the salons of the Socit des artistes dcorateurs. Designers who exhibited their experimental work at the salons in
this period included Prouv, Pierre Guariche, Ren-Jean
Caillette, Joseph-Andr Motte, Charlotte Perriand, Antoine Philippon and Jacqueline Lecoq.[10] In 1947 Prouv
built the Maxville factory where he produced furniture
and undertook extensive architectural research on the
uses of aluminum. In the Ferembal Demountable House
(1948), designed as the oces of the eponymous tin
goods manufacturer, steel portal frames form a structural
core.[11] In 1949, Prouv and his brother Henri won a
contract by the Ministry of Reconstruction and Urbanism to build a 14-lot subdivision at Meudon, just outside
Paris, to demonstrate his prototype lightweight prefabricated metal building system.[8]

Faade detail of Maison tropicale

Prouv's studio built industrial buildings from aluminum

and sent hundreds of aluminum sheds to Africa. He also
designed an aluminum prefabricated house, the Maison
Tropicale, for use in Africa.[12] The Maisons Tropicales
were designed to address the shortage of housing and
civic buildings in Frances African colonies. Prouv designed and manufactured three prototype Maisons Tropicales for West Africa between 1949 and 1951. One
was shipped to Niamey, capital of Niger, and two to
Brazzaville, then capital of the French colony of Middle
Congo. The two that went to Brazzaville were assembled
on the same propertyone as the house, the other as an
oce for a French company that sold aluminum products, including Prouv structures. One of the Brazzaville structures and the house in Niamey were eventually
disassembled and shipped back to Paris.[13] The second,
larger Brazzaville house is made from folded sheet steel
and aluminium. For ease of transport all the parts were
at, lightweight and could be neatly packed into a cargo
plane.[14]
Prouv's business failed in 1952, although Le Corbusier,
one of his early clients, continued to consult him on technical matters.[9] After Maxville he started Constructions Jean Prouv". In 1953, he designed the facade of
the restaurant of the Hotel de France in Conakry, Guinea,
consisting of shutters that pivoted and opened on the
sea.[15] When clergyman Abb Pierre made an appeal for
donations to build emergency housing for homeless people during the winter of 1954, Prouv designed the 'Maison des Jours Meilleurs (A house for better days); measuring 57 square metres, with two bedrooms and a large

3
living area, a few men equipped with simple tools could
build the house in seven hours.[16] Prouvs response to a
1956 commission for a schoolhouse that could be easily
dismantled and relocated, the asymmetrical Villejuif Demountable House (1956) is a lightweight project whose
sheet-steel props support a cantilevered wooden roof.[11]
The school was later disassembled and its components
used in other buildings.[11]
The metal furniture of Jean Prouv was produced copiously in every studio and workshop. His work involved
frequent collaboration, most famously with Charlotte
Perriand and Pierre Jeanneret.[17] The style is set apart
from the Bauhaus steel furniture of the time by his rejection of the steel tube technique. Prouv had more
faith in the durability and form of sheet metal, bent,
pressed, compressed than welded. His designs speak of
a work philosophy that includes knowledge of the materials at hand, a commitment to collaboration between
artists and craftsmen, an attention to evolving technical
developments, and the principle of never postponing decisions so as neither to lose the impetus nor indulge in
unrealistic forecasts. Prouv was inuential in the development of the idea of nomadic architecture, likening
a chair to a house, and designing both with portability in
mind.

2 Legacy
Today, the Maison Jean Prouv belongs to the City of
Nancy, which rents it to an architect and his family
on condition that the public can visit at certain times.
Prouvs workshop from his factory has been rebuilt in
the grounds.

2.1 Art market

In 2007, Christies announced that Andr Balazs, the New
York hotelier, was the winning bidder in an auction for
Maison Tropicale; Balazs reportedly paid $4.97 million
for the house.[19] Other notable private collectors include
actor Brad Pitt, the gallery owner Larry Gagosian, and the
fashion designer Marc Jacobs. In her New York oce,
Martha Stewart uses shelves and stools Prouv designed
for the French postal service.[20]

2.2 Public collections

Prouv's work is included in private and public collections worldwide, including Centre Pompidou, Paris and
the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Permanent galleries devoted to Prouvs work have been installed at the
Muse des beaux-arts and Muse de lHistoire du Fer in
Nancy. In 2012, there were an exhibition of his ironwork
at Muse de lcole de Nancy, an analysis of his impact on
the city during and after World War II at Muse Lorrain
and the installation of one of the prefabricated Maisons
Tropicales he designed for use in Africa at Muse des
beaux-arts.[1]

In 1957 Prouv started the Industrial Transport Equipment Company and built the Rotterdam Medical School,
the Exhibition Center in Grenoble and the Orly Airways
Terminal faade. In 1958 he collaborated on the design of La maison du Sahara, a modern prototype of
a house built for extreme climate conditions. Between
1952 and 1962 he collaborated with Jean Dimitrijevic
on the Muse des Beaux Arts du Havre, a glass, steel
and aluminum structure that received the prix Reynolds
in 1962.[15] In 1958, Prouv collaborated with sculptor Alexander Calder to construct the steel base of La
Spirale, a monumental mobile for the UNESCO site in
Paris. Calder later gave Prouv two mobilesas well as 2.3 Exhibitions
a gouache with a dedication.[18]
Major exhibitions include Jean Prouv: Constructeur,
19011984, Centre Pompidou, Paris (199091); Three
Nomadic Structures, Columbia University (2002); Jean
Prouv: Three Nomadic Structures, Pacic Design Center, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2005);
1.3 Late years
Jean Prouv: A Tropical House, Hammer Museum,
Los Angeles (2006); Jean Prouv: The Poetics of
From 1957 to 1970 Prouv lectured at the Conservatoire the Technical Object, Vitra Design Museum, Weil am
des Arts et Mtiers in Paris. The most ambitious project Rhein (200607, traveled to Museum of Modern Art,
he worked on during the last years of his life was Kamakura & Hayama; Deutsches Architekturmuseum,
the building for the Ministre de lducation Nationale Frankfurt; Netherlands Architecture Institute, Maas(1970), a metal skyscraper designed around a vast inter- tricht; Hotel de Ville de Boulogne-Billancourt, Paris;
nal patio, which was to be built at La Dfense.[6] In 1971, Design Museum, London; and Museo dell'Ara Pacis,
Prouv was the president of the Jury for the design of the Rome, among other venues);[7] Ateliers Jean Prouv,
Centre Pompidou in Paris. Along with fellow jury mem- Museum of Modern Art, New York (200809); a multiber Philip Johnson, he played a very important role for exhibition, multi-venue tribute at Muse des beaux-arts,
the choice of the winning project by Richard Rogers and Nancy (2012); and A Passion for Jean Prouv: From
Renzo Piano.
Furniture to Architecture, Pinacoteca Agnelli, Turin
He died in Nancy in 1984.
(2013).[11]

References

[1] Alice Rawsthorn (17 August 2012), Jean Prouv: A Testimony to Ingenuity New York Times.
[2] Alice Rawsthorn (24 September 2006), Jean Prouv: A
'factory man' who became '90s auction star New York
Times.
[3] Chaise inclinable, Jean Prouv, 1924, MNAM, website
www.centrepompidou.fr
[4] COLEY Catherine, Jean Prouv, Paris: Somogy, 2012.
[5] COLL., Une exprience moderne, le Comit Nancy-Paris,
1923-1927, Lyon : Fage, 2006.

EXTERNAL LINKS

4 Bibliography
Jean Prouv 8x8 Demountable house - edition
Galerie Patrick Seguin, 2013
Jean Prouv 6x6 Demountable house - edition
Galerie Patrick Seguin, Paris 2013
Prouv/Nouvel-Ferembal House (dition Galerie
Patrick Seguin, Paris 2011).
Jean Prouv (ditions Galerie Patrick Seguin, Paris
- Sonnabend Gallery, New York 2007)

5 Images

[6] Jean Prouv Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Maison de la Tunisie Bench-Bookshelf 1952

[7] Jean Prouv Gagosian Gallery.

photo of Jean Prouv and biography (franais) from

the archives of the Centre Pompidou

[8] Jean Prouve: A Tropical House, 4 October 2005 1 January 2006 Hammer Museum, Los Angeles.
[9] Stephen Bayley (9 December 2007), Factory Man made a
weld of his own The Guardian.
[10] Les Salon des Artistes Dcorateurs. Demisch Danant.
2010-10-20. Retrieved 2015-04-11.
[11] Chamberlain/Prouv, In collaboration with Galerie
Patrick Seguin, February 27 - April 4, 2015 Gagosian
Gallery, New York.
[12] From Africa to Queens Waterfront, a Modernist Gem for
Sale to the Highest Bidder. The New York Times. 200310-11. Retrieved 2011-06-27.
[13] Alastair Gordon (1 July 2004), Out of Africa, a House Fit
for a Kit Bag New York Times.
[14] Maison Tropicale for Design Museum at Tate Modern, 5
February 13 April 2008 Tate Modern, London.
[15] Florence Lypsky (4 November 2010). Hommage Jean
Dimitrijevic. Academie d'Architecture. Retrieved 201103-18.
[16] Amy Seran (25 May 2012), Patrick Seguin restores Jean
Prouv's Maison des Jours Meilleurs Wallpaper.
[17] Roberta Smith (14 March 2003), ART IN REVIEW; Jean
Prouv New York Times.
[18] Calder Prouv, 8 June 2 November 2013 Gagosian
Gallery, Paris.
[19] Aric Chen (31 January 2008), A Tropical House on Stilts
Touches Down in London New York Times.
[20] Penelope Rowlands (11 April 2002), 100 Years After His
Birth, New Life for Jean Prouv New York Times.

Many houses photos from Gallery Patrick Seguin

6 External links
Jean Prouve Biography: The metal furniture of
French designer Jean Prouv is among the most
sought after of mid-century furnishings.
The meridienne shelter at the Paris Observatory - by
Jean Prouv
Jean Prouv Furniture Designs
Jean Prouv Architectures

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