Jean Royère was born in 1902 and was a firm favourite within the design community and extremely collectable with his works making vast sums at auction.
Royère took on the mantle of the great artistes décorateurs of 1940s France and ran with it into the second half of the twentieth century. Often perceived as outside of the modernist trajectory ascribed to twentieth-century design, Royère was nonetheless informed by and enormously influential to his peers.
He studied the classics at Cambridge University and initially worked as a banker before beginning his career as a decorator in 1931 working for a furniture manufacturer in Paris.
Having opened a store in Paris in 1943 before the war had ended, he was one of the first to promote a new way of life through interior decoration, and his lively approach found an international audience early on in his career.
In addition to commissions in Europe and South America, Royère had a strong business in the Middle East where he famously designed homes for the Shah of Iran, King Farouk of Egypt and King Hussein of Jordan.
The surrealist humour and artist's thoughtful restraint that he brought to his furniture designs continue to draw admiration to this day. He worked until retirement in 1980 at which point he moved to Pennsylvania. He died a year after his retirement in 1981. He has since become extremely collectable.