One of the leading founders in the Modern Movement in Architecture, Eileen Gray is an Irish furniture designer and architect famous for building some of the most famous furniture designs of the 20th century.
Born on the 9th of August 1878, Eileen Gray was the youngest daughter of a privileged family living near the little market town of Enniscorthy in Northern Ireland. Her father, James Maclaren Gray, was a painter and boosted Eileen’s artistic interests by bringing her on painting tours in Switzerland and Italy and fueling her independent spirit. When she turned twenty, Eileen was enrolled at the prestigious Slade School of Fine Art, where she bumped with other artists including Kathleen Bruce and Jessie Gavin. Later, Gray, along with Gavin and Bruce, migrated to Paris and studied at the Académie Julian and the Académie Colarossi. Eileen was regularly moving back and forth from France, Ireland, and England, until in 1905 when she inhabited back in London when her mother became ill. It was during her time in London that Gray revisited to the Slade School.
Then, while walking down London’s Soho district, Eileen Gray appealed the owner of a lacquer repair shop to show her the basics of lacquer work. This contributed to her meeting with Seizo Sugawara, a Japanese immigrant who moved to Paris to bring back the lacquer work exhibit at the Exposition Universelle. Sugawara came from an area of Japan popular for its decorative lacquer work, and she taught Gray until she was 35 years old.
When World War II exploded in 1914, Eileen Gray moved to London and went back to Paris after the war. During this period Gray was bestowed the task of decorating an apartment in the Rue de Lota, where she created most of its furniture, carpets, lamps, and lacquered wall panels. Gray’s work on Rue de Lota garnered attention among critics, who saw her designs as creative for its time.
Certain of her success in Rue de Lota, Eileen Gray pronounced to open up Jean Desert, a small shop in Paris, to illustrate her work and that of her artist friends. Then in the 1920s and 30s, Gray became involved with the well-connected Union des Artistes Modernes. She also designed and equipped the Tempe à Pailla during this period, and during the Paris Exposition in 1937 she demonstrated her designs of a holiday center in the Le Corbusier Esprit Nouveau Pavilion.
During World War II, Eileen Gray was strained to depart from the French coast and migrated inland. After the war concluded Gray lived a secluded life, largely unseen from public view. Finally, she died of old age on October 31, 1976 in her apartment in France.
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