Decorative Arts of France 1900-1942

The Société des Artistes Décorateurs, founded in 1901, was the first professional association of artists, artisans, designers, and architects to be founded in France after the abolition of the corporations in 1791. Created in the aftermath of the Paris Exposition Universelle of 1900, the Société set out to revitalize the nation's decorative arts industries and to develop a modern and specifically French style for the Twentieth Century. The Société included all areas of the decorative arts: interior design, furniture, metalwork, ceramics, lighting, and decorative painting and sculpture, and counted among its members the most celebrated artists of the Art Nouveau and Art Deco styles: Hector Guimard, Louis Majorelle, Jean Dunand, Edgar Brandt, François Décorchemont, Jacques-Emile Ruhlmann, Pierre Chareau, Jean Puiforcat, Robert Mallet-Stevens, and André Arbus.