Jules Leleu
Pair of Art Deco Club Chairs by Jules Leleu, Blush-Pink Velvet and Mahogany, France, circa 1930, 1945
Velvet and Mahogany Wood
Location: Miami
White-glove shipping available worldwide. Contact for quote.
Location: Miami
White-glove shipping available worldwide. Contact for quote.
30'W x 29"H x 31"D
Seating Height: 18"H
Seating Height: 18"H
A1832
$ 18,000.00
Further images
A supremely comfortable and visually refined pair of French Art Deco club armchairs attributed to Jules Leleu, newly upholstered in blush-pink velvet with crisp contrasting piped edges. The form is...
A supremely comfortable and visually refined pair of French Art Deco club armchairs attributed to Jules Leleu, newly upholstered in blush-pink velvet with crisp contrasting piped edges. The form is classic Leleu — a broad, enveloping rounded backrest that flows seamlessly into softly curved arms, all fully upholstered to create a continuous surface of fabric interrupted only by the slim piping that traces the silhouette with quiet precision. The seat is deep and generous, fitted with a thick loose cushion in matching velvet, ensuring the chairs function as much as objects of comfort as objects of design.
Each chair rests on small square feet in dark stained mahogany, the only exposed wood element — a characteristically Leleu solution that keeps the frame nearly invisible and allows the upholstered volume to read as a pure sculptural form. The blush-pink palette — warm, powdery, and luminous — belongs to the refined chromatic vocabulary of the French style moderne of the 1930s and lends the pair an effortless versatility, pairing equally well with period Art Deco interiors and contemporary rooms.
I can see this pair is already listed on both Incollect and 1stDibs by Martell Gallery. Here is a fuller, more detailed description:
Title: Pair of Art Deco Club Chairs Attributed to Jules Leleu, Blush-Pink Velvet and Mahogany, France, circa 1930
Description:
A supremely comfortable and visually refined pair of French Art Deco club armchairs attributed to Jules Leleu, newly upholstered in blush-pink velvet with crisp contrasting piped edges. The form is classic Leleu — a broad, enveloping rounded backrest that flows seamlessly into softly curved arms, all fully upholstered to create a continuous surface of fabric interrupted only by the slim piping that traces the silhouette with quiet precision. The seat is deep and generous, fitted with a thick loose cushion in matching velvet, ensuring the chairs function as much as objects of comfort as objects of design.
Each chair rests on small square feet in dark stained mahogany, the only exposed wood element — a characteristically Leleu solution that keeps the frame nearly invisible and allows the upholstered volume to read as a pure sculptural form. The blush-pink palette — warm, powdery, and luminous — belongs to the refined chromatic vocabulary of the French style moderne of the 1930s and lends the pair an effortless versatility, pairing equally well with period Art Deco interiors and contemporary rooms.
Jules Leleu (1883–1961) and Maison Leleu
Jules-Émile Leleu was born in Boulogne-sur-Mer in 1883 into a family of artisans and decorators, and studied sculpture and decorative painting at the Académie des Beaux-Arts before co-directing the family workshop with his brother Marcel. After World War I, Leleu pivoted to modern furniture-making, opening Maison Leleu at 65 Avenue Franklin-Roosevelt, Paris, in 1924. The following year, he won the Grand Prix at the 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs — the exhibition that gave Art Deco its name — and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York acquired a Leleu commode that same year, establishing his international reputation immediately. Often described as the principal successor to Jacques-Émile Ruhlmann, Leleu was celebrated for "opulent simplicity" — clean architectural lines enriched by sumptuous materials: exotic wood veneers, lacquer, shagreen, and fine textiles. His prestigious commissions included the Grand Salon des Ambassadeurs at the League of Nations in Geneva, the dining room of the Palais de l'Élysée (1937), first-class cabins aboard the ocean liners Île-de-France, Atlantique, and Normandie, and French embassies in Japan, Brazil, Turkey, Poland, and the Netherlands. In the 1930s his style became increasingly spare and modernist, producing forms like this pair of club chairs — pure, voluminous, and material-led. The house continued under his children André and Paule Leleu, and Maison Leleu remains active today.
Each chair rests on small square feet in dark stained mahogany, the only exposed wood element — a characteristically Leleu solution that keeps the frame nearly invisible and allows the upholstered volume to read as a pure sculptural form. The blush-pink palette — warm, powdery, and luminous — belongs to the refined chromatic vocabulary of the French style moderne of the 1930s and lends the pair an effortless versatility, pairing equally well with period Art Deco interiors and contemporary rooms.
I can see this pair is already listed on both Incollect and 1stDibs by Martell Gallery. Here is a fuller, more detailed description:
Title: Pair of Art Deco Club Chairs Attributed to Jules Leleu, Blush-Pink Velvet and Mahogany, France, circa 1930
Description:
A supremely comfortable and visually refined pair of French Art Deco club armchairs attributed to Jules Leleu, newly upholstered in blush-pink velvet with crisp contrasting piped edges. The form is classic Leleu — a broad, enveloping rounded backrest that flows seamlessly into softly curved arms, all fully upholstered to create a continuous surface of fabric interrupted only by the slim piping that traces the silhouette with quiet precision. The seat is deep and generous, fitted with a thick loose cushion in matching velvet, ensuring the chairs function as much as objects of comfort as objects of design.
Each chair rests on small square feet in dark stained mahogany, the only exposed wood element — a characteristically Leleu solution that keeps the frame nearly invisible and allows the upholstered volume to read as a pure sculptural form. The blush-pink palette — warm, powdery, and luminous — belongs to the refined chromatic vocabulary of the French style moderne of the 1930s and lends the pair an effortless versatility, pairing equally well with period Art Deco interiors and contemporary rooms.
Jules Leleu (1883–1961) and Maison Leleu
Jules-Émile Leleu was born in Boulogne-sur-Mer in 1883 into a family of artisans and decorators, and studied sculpture and decorative painting at the Académie des Beaux-Arts before co-directing the family workshop with his brother Marcel. After World War I, Leleu pivoted to modern furniture-making, opening Maison Leleu at 65 Avenue Franklin-Roosevelt, Paris, in 1924. The following year, he won the Grand Prix at the 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs — the exhibition that gave Art Deco its name — and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York acquired a Leleu commode that same year, establishing his international reputation immediately. Often described as the principal successor to Jacques-Émile Ruhlmann, Leleu was celebrated for "opulent simplicity" — clean architectural lines enriched by sumptuous materials: exotic wood veneers, lacquer, shagreen, and fine textiles. His prestigious commissions included the Grand Salon des Ambassadeurs at the League of Nations in Geneva, the dining room of the Palais de l'Élysée (1937), first-class cabins aboard the ocean liners Île-de-France, Atlantique, and Normandie, and French embassies in Japan, Brazil, Turkey, Poland, and the Netherlands. In the 1930s his style became increasingly spare and modernist, producing forms like this pair of club chairs — pure, voluminous, and material-led. The house continued under his children André and Paule Leleu, and Maison Leleu remains active today.