Janette Laverrière

Janette Laverrière plays an important role in the design of interior architecture and the creation of furniture in the 20^th century. Born in 1909 in Switzerland, she studied at the Allgemeine Gewerbeschule in Basel and trained in the office of her father, a famous architect. In 1931, in the agency of Jacques-Émile Ruhlmann, a demanding professor, she met the decorator Maurice Pré, her future husband. They worked together for a few years, producing, among other works, "Le Pied-à-terre d'un archéologue" in collaboration with Maxime Old, for the 1937 Exhibition. Separated from Maurice Pré in 1945, Janette Laverrière freed herself from tradition, appropriating new materials to invent economical and ingenious furniture. She entered the National Furniture collections, designed the presidential palace of Niamey and the Swiss Hospital of Paris, and decorated or built the houses of intellectual friends, with a constant search for simplicity and a poetry which reveals itself particularly in the mirrors that she continued to create throughout her career since 1936.

23 x 30.5 cm

176 pages

254 black and white and color illustrations

ISBN: 978-2-9092-8388-3

Text in French only