Louis Majorelle – Armoire

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I absolutely love beautiful furniture. I love an ornamented life.

A stunning Art Nouveau armoire with me in the mirror. An exit sign over the doorway behind me. There are birds inlaid with lighter wood across the top and flowers inlad on the side. A tree is growing up the right side of the mirror.

This would not fit in my house. It is huge.

It is so huge that I didn’t get the ornamental cat in the photo.

A wooden cat sitting on a pedestal.

Here’s a closer view of the drawers.

The twist of this leg (? do you call it a leg in this location?) is a little secret grace that wasn’t immediately visible to me from the front. It surprised me as a walked around trying to capture better memories of the piece.

My other pictures are marred by glare. So, I’m not inflicting them on you.

Louis Majorelle, French, 1859-1926 Armoire, c. 1900-1910, Fruitwood and tropical veneers, oak, mirror Museum purchase with funds provided by a gift of the estate of Colonel and Mrs. Kirby Green The natural aspects of this Art Nouveau armoire are plentiful, including tulips, birds, and trees in varied wood veneers, as well as a surveying cat. The organicism masks its industrial leanings. Two important late 19th-century movements in the decorative arts, the Aesthetic Movement and Arts and Crafts, refused all machine production in reaction to the perceived degradation of handicrafts by the Industrial Revolution. Art Nouveau designers, however, found ways to incorporate factory production to make work more affordable. Majorelle was a leader in including industrial processes in his furniture making, using the glasswork of local firm Daum Frères and adding a metalworking workshop to mass produce drawer pulls and other details.

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