Eileen Gray: Shouldn’t her name be more widely known?

House E-1027 | source: assets.ad-magazin.de

Furniture designer, architect and, above all, an innovative personality, Eileen Gray laid the foundations for a different angle in modern design and architecture. The Bonaparte armchair (1935), the highly minimalist E1027 (1927) coffee table, the Castellar Mirror (1927) and the house E-1027, are some of the works she left, so to speak, as a legacy for the next generations. So, although 144 years have passed since her birth and almost half a century since her death, Gray will always be present through her creations, reminding us that simplicity is timeless. The tragic part in her case? She was recognized after the age of 94.

From Kathleen Eileen Moray Smith to Eileen Gray

Kathleen Eileen Moray Smith was born on August 9, 1878, in the countryside of Enniscorthy, Ireland. She was the youngest child of James MacLaren Smith, a minor painter, and Eveleen Pounden, an aristocrat. At the age of 11, her parents divorced and shortly after, her mother took the title of the 19th Baroness of Grey. Her mother’s new title was to be the reason for the complete change of the surname of the family. So, from then on she would bear the name by which she became known, Eileen Gray.

Image source: latimes.com

With her father's support, Gray begins to show a penchant for painting and drawing. She studied, for a short time, at the rather unconventional Slade School in London and later she moved to Paris. There, she takes classes at the Académie Colarossi and the Académie Julian. During the First World War, she returned to England for a while, until leaving again after the end of the hostilities.

Upon her return to Paris, in 1917, she is commissioned to redesign the Rue de Lota apartment, which would be characterised as "thoroughly modern although there is much feeling for the antique" by Harper's Bazaar magazine, in 1920. Of course, the pieces of furniture by Gray, the Bibendum armchair and the Pirogue Day sofa-bed, draw most of the interest thanks to their strange designs. In particular, the Bibendum armchair seems to follow the standards of the German Werkbund, since its simplicity, comfort and the absence of rare materials make it a reference piece for the furniture found in luxury homes.

Bibendum Chair (1926) | Image source: cdn.shopify.com

In 1922, Gray decides to innovate, establishing her own store on a rather expensive Parisian street. Jean Désert attracts customers such as Ezra Pound and Elsa Schiaparelli, and not without reason as the items sold there are renowned for their uniqueness. However, no matter how strange they look, they never lose the simplicity of their construction - which makes them easily adaptable to many spaces - or their geometric - almost sculptural - disposition.

The professional turn 

From 1926 to 1931, Gray collaborated professionally with the architect Jean Badovici. Their collaboration at Jean Désert and their personal relationship seem to have had a profound effect on Gray. However, it was not only Badovici who was the main factor behind her turn to architecture. With a business on the brink of financial collapse, Gray began drawing architectural plans in order to boost her morale. Thus, only a few years after it was established, the promising Jean Désert closes, with the Irish artist turning entirely to architecture and the sense of calm it created for her.

But a style had to be found that would suit Gray's somewhat unconventional character. Deutsch Werkstätten, known for its different approach to furniture making, was also an influence on Gray's later work since her minimalist approach to construction was in complete agreement with the German company's holistic approach, which aimed for a "unifying" attitude towards designing.

The "products" of this shift in architecture would turn into breakthrough points for the modern art movement, but also for the way we perceive design in general.

E-1027 

Between 1926-1929, Gray's first major effort in the field of architectural design begins, with the construction of the country house E-1027, in Cape Martin, at the southeastern tip of France. The villa, which would become an emblem of the modern architectural trend, would house the Gray-Badovici couple, with the French-Romanian architect also contributing – albeit to a lesser extent than Gray – to the final design of the house. After all, the name of the house also signals, in a way, the relationship between the two, as the E refers to Eileen, while the numbers 10, 2, 7 refer to the names Jean, Bodovici and Gray respectively.

Ε 1027 (mockup) | Ιmage source: arranqhenderson.com

The house - characterised by its L-shaped floor plan, its permeability and flowing movement inside - is isolated, facing the sea. The site was carefully selected by Gray herself, who studied not only the design of the house but also its complete integration into the surrounding natural space. After all, the goal of the plan was for the house to become one with the environment, without interrupting the landscape at all - let's not forget that its roof is flat, not obstructing the view of the horizon - while at the same time the entire facade of the construction has an unobstructed view of the sea. Gray took into account the gust of wind and the angles from which the sun would fall so that the whole house is bathed in natural Mediterranean light through large windows throughout the year.

The same pattern of unhindered movement is also observed inside since all the rooms have direct access to the balconies, i.e. the outside space, while the sense of continuous flow that the house wants to give, culminates with the complementary elements of the construction, such as the windows and shutters, which are also movable. Thus, anyone who wants to enjoy the scenery can have easy access, at any time, to the outside environment.

Ιmage source: fr.wikiarquitectura.com

Of course, the interior of the villa can not be ignored. With the whole philosophy of the house following the maison minimum trend, the interiors were furnished with built-in furniture to save as much space as possible. With the main floor of the house consisting of an open living room, the office-bedroom and the kitchen, and the ground floor consisting of a large living room, a guest bedroom, the maid's room and a WC, the ergonomics of the house seem to be achieved to the fullest. However, the roof space was not left unexploited either. There, Gray designed a garden, which would be surrounded by a small kitchen and a sunbathing area for the summer season.

Ιmage source: houzz.com.au

As expected, furnishing the interior was curated by her, following the minimalist character of the entire residence. Simple furniture pieces, which seem light, covered with colours that follow those of the natural landscape, are scattered in the spaces of the house, with the E 1070 coffee table as the central piece. One could say that this easily adaptable piece of furniture is also the most typical example of Eileen Gray’s design method since the - almost entirely - transparent construction can stand anywhere, without monopolizing our visual interest.

E 1027 tables | Ιmage source: cdn2.ikarus.de

But the promising house was not just an oasis near the sea since it seems to have been a point of conflict between Eileen Gray and Le Corbusier and a rupture in their already strained relationship.

Colourful murals and nude forms on white walls?

After Gray and Badovici broke up, it was decided that the latter would remain in the villa, which was visited by many of the couple's friends after the end of their relationship. Because of his personal friendship with the new and henceforth sole owner, Le Corbusier often visited the house, spending the night there. During one of these overnight stays between 1938 and 1939, the visitor decided to use the stark white walls as a canvas, painting colorful murals and nude female figures, apparently without Gray's consent. As expected, she herself considered these interventions as vandalism and is said to have clashed strongly with Le Corbusier.

Some of Le Corbusier’s «artistic interventions» | Ιmage source: gr.pinterest.com

The Swiss architect's mysterious move doesn’t seem to have been fully explained by historians and of course not even by him. Architecture critic Rowan Moore reports in The Guardian: "As an act of naked phallocracy, Corbusier's actions are hard to top [...] seemingly affronted that a woman could create such a fine work of modernism [... asserted his dominion, like a urinating dog, over the territory”. Perhaps these interventions led to the misconception that the house was originally designed by Le Corbusier, although, in fact, the theoretical thinking behind the design of the house was completely opposite to the architect's idea that "the house is a machine for living”. On the contrary, the design of the Irish designer-architect aims to fulfil the life of the building itself, understood as a living organism with movement. Like an extension, that is, of the human experience in space.

Jealousy or phallocracy, what is certain is that the original design and look of the interior were lost as was all of Gray's intention to achieve simplicity.

A course as an example for the future

Gray, in addition to E 1027, completed two other houses: Tempe à Pailla (near the French town of Menton) and her house in St Tropez. In addition, another 45 blueprints and sketches of houses have been found in her personal archive. As for her favourite E 1027, it was captured during World War II by Nazi soldiers, who used it as a training ground. The walls were destroyed by the shots, while on one of them, and right above a mural by Le Corbusier, a swastika was painted. So the villa, despite its importance, seems to have fallen into obscurity, just like Eileen Gray.

Nevertheless, through restoration efforts in 2000-2006 and 2006-2010, Gray's iconic house largely returned to its original form, demonstrating its importance for modern and contemporary architectural design. In this way, Eileen Gray is vindicated, even posthumously, for the unique way she viewed things, always focusing on the condition of achieving a simple and ergonomic result.

We are sure that her work will continue to be appreciated, studied and displayed, and perhaps it might even become a paradigm for the future of design.

Sources/ Further reading

M. Doyle. Eileen Gray: an architect and designer you should know. Από: royalacademy.org.uk.

R. Moore. Eileen Gray's E1027 – review. Από: theguardian.com.

N. Mitchell. The Modern Architectural Pioneer & Furniture Designer We Don’t Hear About Enough. Από: apartmenttherapy.com.

B. Cogley. Eileen Gray retrospective in New York features work "never shown before". Από: dezeen.com.

Το trailer του ντοκιμαντέρ GRAY MATTERS – The Documentary στο: graymattersthedoc.com.

Η επίσημη σελίδα του E 1027 στο: e1027.org.