SEPTEMBER 2004

JEAN DUNAND ART DECO PANELS DONATED: SCALED-DOWN VERSIONS OF NORMANDIE PANELS

The Wolfsonian was recently gifted with two art deco lacquered plaster panels created by Jean Dunand (1877-1942), a significant donation that enhances the museum's renowned art deco collection. Dunand was one of the heroes of the art deco movement; the panels are smaller versions of work he did for the opulent French ocean liner Normandie.

"These panels are magnificent pieces," said Sarah Schleuning, assistant curator. "We are very fortunate to have been given them. They are a wonderful addition to our art deco collection and they tie in well with our collection's focus on transportation."

The panels donated to The Wolfsonian were created by Dunand specifically for the Palm Beach residence of Madame Chadwick and remained installed there until the recent donation. One of the panels is inscribed by the artist and reads "For Dear Madame Chadwick/From Jean Dunand/Original Panels from S.S. Normandie/1935." The panels were very generously donated to the museum in March by the Frederick and Patricia Supper Foundation.

The donated panels are based on works Dunand created for the smoking room of the Normandie, launched in 1935. The panels are each approximately eight feet by four feet, a bit less than half the size of the Normandie's panels, which were almost twenty feet high. Dunand designed all of the panels for the smoking room, although the donated panels are after a design by Jean Dupas (1882-1964), who designed the panels in the Normandie's salon. The works donated are the "Hunting" panels, which were part of a larger theme titled "Man's Games and Pleasures." One depicts a hunter and his dog in active pursuit; the other shows the prey - two tiger-like animals surrounded by leaves.

The panels are in the style of Egyptian bas-relief, and were created through a painstaking process. Dunand incised and sculpted a clay and plaster mixture to create the panels, which were then covered with lacquer and baked in special ovens. Dunand used a lacquer he had invented, and often had workers apply as many as 100 coats. Accounts of his labor on the Normandie panels tell of him working obsessively and report that the work put an enormous strain on him, from which he never fully recovered.

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