Eileen Gray
Eileen Gray (1878-1976) was a furniture designer from Ireland. Her father was a painter and he used to encourage her artistic abilities. This might be the reason which prompted her to be a designer. At the age of 20, she joined the Slade School of Fine Art to improve her architectural skills. Two years later, in 1990, her father died. The same year she went to visit Paris for the first time with her mother . She went there to visit “Exposition Universelle”. After that, she along with her friends at the Slade School, moved to Paris. The Acadmie Colarossi and the Acadmie Julian are the places where she continued her further architectural studies.
In the year 1905, Gray planned to settle in London since her mother got ill and wasn’t in a condition to move frequently along with her. During this time she had already moved back and forth many times between Ireland, Paris and London. She re-enrolled at the Slade School, but she wasn’t satisfied with her courses.
Gray was pretty interested in lacquer works and did contact a shop owner in Soho regarding the same, after which she planned to move to Paris again. It was in the year 1906 and there she met Seizo Sugawara, who was Japanese. It is not sure though if it was Seizo Sugawara-san or Sugawara-san. Anyways, she worked with Sugawara for about four years. Her hands were attacked by lacquer disease after spending so many years doing lacquer work.
In the year 1914, when the First World War occurred, she and Sugawara moved to London. After the war they came to Paris again and she got a job which was about decorating an apartment out there. She was engaged in designing furniture, lamps etc and also in fitting lacquered panels on the walls. Her works at the apartment were reviewed by many as something very innovative. This made her start a shop in Paris, where she used to sell her work.
During the 1920′s and 1930′s she was busy with the Union des Artistes Modernes. It had a lot of other well known members as well.
