Marcel Coard
1889 – 1974
Marcel Coard was a French architect, decorator, and furniture designer, standing as a highly exclusive and singular figure of the Art Deco movement. Primarily known for his exceptionally bold work for the grand couturier and patron Jacques Doucet, he developed a unique style on the borderline of Cubism and tribal arts. Remaining on the fringes of major official salons and mass production, his sculptural furniture stands out for its rigorous architectural frameworks and highly rare, precious materials.
Biography
Trained in architecture at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, he applied the rigor of this discipline to furniture design before opening his own gallery on Rue de Berri on the eve of World War I.
In the early 1920s, his meeting with the collector Jacques Doucet proved decisive; Coard became one of the key designers for Doucet's legendary Neuilly studio, creating iconic furniture pieces crafted to dialogue with masterpieces by Picasso, Braque, or Henri Rousseau.
Emancipating himself from the floral lines or traditional classicism of his era, he integrated massive forms and rhythmic geometric patterns directly inspired by African and Oceanic arts, which were then being rediscovered by the Parisian avant-garde.
A true jeweler of furniture, he elevated his creations with bold veneering and cladding using exotic or novel materials such as shagreen (galuchat), parchment, Macassar ebony, mother-of-pearl, and even faceted mirror inlays.
"Marcel Coard never bowed to the demands of mass production. Each of his furniture pieces, conceived as a miniature piece of architecture, is a total work of art where the rarity of materials matches the rigor of the line."
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