said that the French were suspicious of lacquer because it was too black, too dark and related to the dark arts.10 Despite lacquer being a difficult medium of expression it captured her imagination, challenging her and intriguing her. It was a very demanding process that required determination, dedication and hard work. She kept Charles’s recipe for lacquer, but Charles used Chinese lacquer which she imported and ordered from him in London but gradually through the influence of Sugawara she changed around to Japanese lacquer which she stated ‘The Chinese lacquer has more oil in it and is less resistant than the Japanese one, which is harder’.11 Gray began ordering directly from a Japanese lacquer merchant Sugimoto Gosuke from Toyko.12
4.5 Seizo Sugawara, 1910s, black and white photograph © NMI
Following trips to Ireland and England, Gray finally settled permanently in Paris at the end of 1906 and took an apartment at 21 rue Bonaparte in 1907. During this period the world of the decorative arts in France was in disarray. The rapid development of the German avant-garde design movement, exhibited at the Exposition Universelle, posed a threat to French design. In 1910 the Munich Vereinigte Werkstätten für Kunst im Handwerk held their first Paris exhibition at the Salon d’Automne. Largely employing wood, their simple designs were socially motivated, produced for moderate household budgets and addressed questions of industrial production.13 The German approach inspired a number of French designers, including Francis Jourdain (1876-1958) and Claude Roger Marx (1888-1977), who believed that, based on the example of Germany and England, one could produce low-cost affordable furniture for the masses. Gray embraced this liberal social philosophy. The Germans posed a threat suggesting a practical, democratic non-historicist approach, whereas the French by not embracing mass production hid behind the veneer of sumptuous interiors and outdated elitism. Indeed on 29 March the French newspaper Le Matin proclaimed that the French decorative arts were endangered by an imminent German invasion and as a result French critics assumed a defensive position.14 Gray felt an immediate affinity with their ideas.
In 1901 the Société Nationale des Artistes Décorateurs, a non-profit organisation, had been formed in France. Its aim was to promote French decorative arts, encouraging artists, craftsmen and designers to break from industrialists and work directly for the public under their own signature. They were insistent on elevating the status of the designer to the same level as that of artist. Gray joined and exhibited with them until 1925. Despite promoting modernity, French decorative arts relied heavily on luxury goods for an elitist clientele and did not consider changing to mass production. In France the emphasis on a nationalist approach to the decorative arts overlooked the developments of the Munich Werkstätten, and in the vacuum left from Art Nouveau there was a revival of eighteenth and nineteenth-century styles with garlands, swags and bouquet motifs and neo-classical references. This, combined with the charms of Orientalism and the exoticism of Les Ballet Russes and Diaghilev’s production of Schéhérazade in 1909, produced the repertoire of Art Deco which culminated in the 1925 Exposition des Art Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes.
With the initial help of Seizo Sugawara Gray was provided with further instruction, and the two remained as friends and in partnership for many years. They shared the same tools and workboxes, one of the tools even had the initials ‘G’ and ‘S’. Gray also kept Sugawara’s cabinet, his professional stamp and she kept a piece of his lacquer for herself.15 Sugawara was born in Sakata city in Yamagata Prefecture in North West Honshu on 29 January 1884.16 His early training was with a maker of Butsudan – traditional Buddhist shrines made in lacquer. He was apprenticed from an early age to a shrine maker in Jahoji.17 In 1905, at the age of twenty-one he was chosen to accompany Shoka Tsujimura (1867-1929) a professor in lacquer from the École des Beaux-Arts Tokyo to Paris.18 Tsujimura had been invited by the French government to teach the art of lacquer.19 Seizo Sugawara was one of Eileen Gray’s early lacquer teachers, but the exact date as to when they met still remains unclear.20 Gray states in her personal notes that by 1908 she was working with a Japanese lacquer craftsman.21 Gray later stated of their meeting, ‘I was very glad when Sougawara (sic) who was lodging with some friends came to see me and we decided to start a workshop’.22
4.6 Lacquer tools, 1910-1930, wood, metal, hair, pumice stone, pigment, polishing stones © NMI
The Japanese Pavilion left an indelible impression at the Exposition Universelle of 1900 where work from the Rimpa School, notably Ogata Korin (1658-1716), was on display.23 The decision for Sugawara amongst other Japanese lacquer craftsmen to leave Japan for Europe at the time was an indication of how difficult it was to pursue this traditional craft as a career in his native homeland. With the emergence of Art Nouveau at the Paris Exhibition of 1900 the École des Beaux-Arts in Tokyo amongst other schools set up decorative arts departments which permitted artisans like Tsujimura to work in workshops in Paris such as the atelier Gaillard.24 Some artisans worked in appalling conditions; many returned home, others received government grants for the duration of their stay in Paris. For those who settled in Paris, like Sugawara, they appeared to have lived in the district around rue de Théatre.25
Sugawara and Gray formed a very successful partnership. Initially working out of her apartment, they finally opened a workshop in 1910 on the rue Guénégaud where they produced lacquer work.26 He became Gray’s mentor, teaching her this technique, and after she had mastered the art to perfection, he continued to appear on her payroll for lacquer work.
Sugawara was an important lacquer artist in his own right. Jean Dunand (1877-1942), the renowned French lacquer artist who had first met Gray in 1908, came to study under Sugawara after Gray made the initial introduction. Dunand first met Sugawara on 18 February 1912.27 Sugawara had an interest in the dinanderie work of Dunand and they initiated each other into their respective techniques. The first lesson took place on 16 May 1912 and was followed by twelve more, running to July. Gray remained in contact with Dunand and his son Bernard (1908-1998), who would become one of the most important designers from the Art Deco period.
Lacquer, though it has a remarkable lustrous finish, requires a painstaking method of production. True lacquer is a resin drawn from the Rhus vernicifera, peculiar to China and Japan. In its natural state, once it is filtered from its impurities, it forms a dense liquid which when exposed to oxygen under humid conditions dries slowly to form a hard, impermeable surface. The liquid resin is mixed with powdered stone and then Gray usually applied thin layers onto a wood base. The wood had to be smoothed down with a pumice stone and then the grain was filled in. Then the top is concealed with fine silk or hemp which is pasted on with rice gum. To achieve the required result of a lustrous finish usually twenty to thirty coats had to be applied and each layer took several days to dry. Then they were pumiced over again before the next application. Each of these coats had to be applied in a dust-free environment. The drying process took two to four days and initially the most suitable environment she found was her own bathroom.28 In her notebook she recorded that ‘when lacquer has been left some time before applying a fresh coat or relief always clean well by rubbing over with – for black and solid grounds – charcoal powder and water – for delicate grounds tomoko (a type of Japanese clay) and water’.29
Lacquer dries to a rich, dark brown colour when left to dry in its natural form. Yet Gray experimented with natural pigments producing black, brown and brilliant orange and red variations.30 At one point she experimented with the use of cigarette paper instead of gold or silver leaf.31 Each of her experiments in colours, materials and techniques she meticulously began to record in a notebook on lacquer which she used for nearly twenty-five years.32 On how to achieve a rough surface and to give lacquer texture she noted, ‘To make a rugged surface in lacquer give a coat of transparent lacquer and on to it drop grains of the powder of colour chosen, wait about three hours and then cover the whole surface with powder brushing it backwards and forwards about three or more times at intervals of a few hours. Leave it dry about two or three days then wash over with sponge and water to wash off sulphurous powder, dry with