Recognised as a key figure in the Functionalist movement, Francis Jourdain initially set out to paint, a practice he inherited from his multidisciplinary apprenticeship and his exposure to the artistic circles of the time thanks to his father, Frantz Jourdain (1847-1935), a famous architect and the first president of the Salon d'Automne. However, he turned to the applied arts, in particular furniture design. A committed artist, sensitive to the living conditions of workers, he created ‘interchangeable furniture’, simple and accessible to all, which he mass-produced from 1912 onwards in his Ateliers Modernes. He opened a shop on rue de Sèze in Paris, selling modernist ceramics, lighting and other decorative objects. Jourdain developed sober, pure lines in his work, far from the curves and ornamentation that characterised the Art Nouveau in vogue at the time. He became close to artists such as Robert Mallet-Stevens (1886-1945) and Charlotte Perriand (1903-1999), with whom he founded the Union des Artistes Modernes (UAM), whose innovative vision paved the way for modernism.

 

A pioneer of modernity

Close to artistic circles, politically committed, avant-garde, painter, writer, decorator, interior designer: there is no shortage of adjectives to describe Francis Jourdain. Pioneer' is perhaps the term most often used to sum up the work and life of this multidisciplinary artist, constantly ahead of his time. But Jourdain's avant-gardism needs to be considered in its entirety, ‘so much so that [the artist] dominates with his originality the most effective research undertaken in the field of interior architecture, furniture and everyday objects, during years that were decisive for French art, both in terms of ideas and works’, as Léon Moussinac recalls.

 

Designer of everyday objects

In his ‘unfurnished’ interiors, made up of simple, functionalist furniture, Francis Jourdain nevertheless allowed fantasy and a taste for colour to express itself, ‘once the functions had been fulfilled and the needs satisfied’.  To this end, he designed a variety of everyday objects, such as lighting, curtains, rugs, ceramics and wallpaper - all characterised by their polychromy, simple form and modularity - which he sold in his boutiques and which became part of his flats. Jourdain's aim was to create ‘reasonable objects’ that would not be unaffordable works of art. Later, this innovative idea would lead, within the framework of the UAM, to the ‘Formes Utiles’ exhibition of 1949-1950 at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs.