Gaston Suisse (1896-1988) is considered one of the most influential interior designer of the 1930’s. From a family of artists, he started drawing as a child and showed at an early age a strong interest in animals and the Far East arts.
He regularly visits the Jardin des Plantes in Paris, fascinated by the big cats and the exotic residents of the majestic aviaries whose shapes and bountiful colours inspire him. There he befriends Paul Jouve who takes him to the Antwerp’s zoo and introduces him to Rembrandt Bugatti. He studies at the Ecole des Arts Décoratifs of Paris while researching lacquering technics on his own in the Studio converted at his parents’ house.
During World War I, the young SUISSE is mobilised and brings back numerous landscapes drawings from his tours. He finds Jouve in Thessaloniki over the course of 1917. Demobilized in 1919, he finishes his course at the Arts Décoratifs and perfects his lacquering skills starting with a vegetal based lacquer that he improves with a new synthetic varnish process allowing him to widen his chromatic range and effects such as the use of golden leaves or eggshells inlay.
His decors on panels, windscreens, pedestal and regular tables, objects or other stylised pieces of furniture are presented on the occasion of exhibitions or Parisian salons and are a great success with the art collectors of the time.
His participation to the Exposition Coloniale of 1931 is also much noted. During the 1937 Exhibition, he is awarded the gold medal for a magnificent monumental lacquered décor created for the Palais de Tokyo in Paris.
Gaston SUISSE then collaborates with prestigious names such as the Galeries Lafayette for who he produces glass-windows boards for the 1925 Exhibition, the designers Brandt, Jansen and Ruhlmann as well as Hermès for who he creates a hundred of lacquered boxes for the American market.
Alongside his preparatory drawings, his prolific work of lacquered panels picturing exotic animals and much rare of furniture with geometrical decors stands as one of the most iconic of his time and is nowadays internationally sought after.
He regularly visits the Jardin des Plantes in Paris, fascinated by the big cats and the exotic residents of the majestic aviaries whose shapes and bountiful colours inspire him. There he befriends Paul Jouve who takes him to the Antwerp’s zoo and introduces him to Rembrandt Bugatti. He studies at the Ecole des Arts Décoratifs of Paris while researching lacquering technics on his own in the Studio converted at his parents’ house.
During World War I, the young SUISSE is mobilised and brings back numerous landscapes drawings from his tours. He finds Jouve in Thessaloniki over the course of 1917. Demobilized in 1919, he finishes his course at the Arts Décoratifs and perfects his lacquering skills starting with a vegetal based lacquer that he improves with a new synthetic varnish process allowing him to widen his chromatic range and effects such as the use of golden leaves or eggshells inlay.
His decors on panels, windscreens, pedestal and regular tables, objects or other stylised pieces of furniture are presented on the occasion of exhibitions or Parisian salons and are a great success with the art collectors of the time.
His participation to the Exposition Coloniale of 1931 is also much noted. During the 1937 Exhibition, he is awarded the gold medal for a magnificent monumental lacquered décor created for the Palais de Tokyo in Paris.
Gaston SUISSE then collaborates with prestigious names such as the Galeries Lafayette for who he produces glass-windows boards for the 1925 Exhibition, the designers Brandt, Jansen and Ruhlmann as well as Hermès for who he creates a hundred of lacquered boxes for the American market.
Alongside his preparatory drawings, his prolific work of lacquered panels picturing exotic animals and much rare of furniture with geometrical decors stands as one of the most iconic of his time and is nowadays internationally sought after.
