a screen perpetuates Art Deco

Upon entering the International Cultural Heritage Exhibition, the visitor cannot help but be seduced by a three-panel screen, a tribute to the centenary of Art Deco.

Designed by the Maison du Vitrail, the first panel (on the right) radiates a sculpted light. Emmanuelle Andrieu, creator and restaurateur, infuses her passion for Art Deco. The stained glass bursts into precious textures, playing with the mirrors to create a jewel effect. The lower parts, very structural, evoke mobile ornaments, like jewels in motion.

“An architecture that mixes materials and textures”

“Art Deco has never left me,” confides Emmanuelle Andrieu. “It’s a timeless style, an architecture that mixes materials and textures, with planted, structured lines, far from floral and rounded. Because it is eternal, I called my screen Eternal.”

Located in the 15th arrondissement of Paris, the Maison du Vitrail promotes artistic crafts by bringing them into dialogue. Its team of 14 artisans divides its activity between restoration and creation, with projects ranging from the dome of Galeries Lafayette to the great synagogue of Levallois-Perret (Hauts-de-Seine).

A contemporary reinterpretation

The central panel, for its part, pays homage to French cabinetmaking through the work of Féau Boiseries, a house founded in 1875. Guillaume Féau, its representative, revisits in molded plaster the bas-reliefs of the living room designed by Jacques-Émile Ruhlmann for Lord Rothermere in 1925.

The original, made of discolored rosewood, is now on display at the Louvre Abu Dhabi. “This decor is of rare quality, with feminine allegories of extreme beauty, subtle variations in the hair or eyelashes, undulating patterns,” enthuses Guillaume Féau. This panel embodies the finesse and rigor of high decoration, in a contemporary reinterpretation.

The third panel (left), produced by the Camuset workshop, celebrates decorative painting and gilding. Inspired by the decorator Gaston Suisse, it presents stylized plant motifs – olive branches, foliage and three golden lilies – hand-sculpted and gilded with 23-carat gold leaf.

Clotilde and Pierre-Antoine Camuset, brother and sister, named this work Golden Liliesin homage to the elegance of the line and the visual richness of Art Deco. “Gold takes the light fully, whether in shadow or in full light. We play with the wear of gold to create effects of light and shine,” explains Pierre-Antoine.

A living heritage

The Camuset workshop, located in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, combines contemporary decorative coatings and classic references, in an approach to reinterpreting the past. This subtle marriage gives birth to a work that is both timeless and current, where the artisanal gesture dialogues with innovation.

“It’s a very original project which highlights an essential period of Art Deco, today in full revival,” recognizes Clotilde Camuset. Born from the meeting between three exceptional skills, this screen embodies much more than a tribute to the Art Deco style: it is the symbol of a living heritage, reinvented by craftsmen who bring past and present into dialogue.