Charlotte Perriand: Prices and ratings
This major twentieth-century artist changed the history of design, creating furniture using new materials and adapted to contemporary spaces. Having worked alongside Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret, she is now one of the most popular designers on the art market .
In 2021, her sales reached record levels, totalling €6,633,001. In recent years, Charlotte Perriand's price index on the art market has risen by more than 35%. The artist's standing is very high, as she is ranked 235th among the best-selling artists on the art market.
The best-selling category of lots on the Charlotte Perriand market was furniture (94.2%). The artist's market is strongest in France.
Charlotte Perriand left behind a vast body of work that is highly prized on today's art market:
The straw chairs and the n°19 "Bauche" chairs can be estimated at a few hundred euros. Forexample,a pair of "Bauche" chairs sold for €1,800 at our auction house.A series of seven chairs and a stool, circa 1960, with an oak frame and straw seats and back, sold for €4,000 at MILLON .
The famous "LC4" chaise longue, designed in collaboration with Le Corbusier, usually sells for over a thousand euros. One of them, in chromed tubular metal, black lacquered steel and black leather, sold for €1,800 at our auction house.
Charlotte Perriand's 'shaped' furniture can fetch higher prices. For example, her shaped desk in varnished ash wood sold for €49,000 at our MILLON auction house. The artist's best-seller is a free-form table known as the 'Feuille'. It sold for €600,000 at the hammer price at the 2022 auction!
Some estimates from our auction house MILLON:
- Shaped desk in varnished ash wood, sold for €49, 000in our MILLON auction house.
- Tokyo"benchin ash composed of slats and resting on three solid oval uprights, sold for €24,000 at MILLON.
- Cansado" sideboard, created in 1956, sold for 7,000 euros at our auction house .
- Suite of three "Berger" stools, tripod legs and circular seat in black-stained wood. Sold for€4,800 at MILLON .
- Free-form coffee table, circa 1955, sold for €3,600 at MILLON .
Biography of Charlotte Perriand
Charlotte Perriand was born in Paris in 1903 and died in the same city in 1999 after 96 years of committed creative work in the fields of design and architecture.
After studying at the Union Centrale des Arts Décoratifs under Henri Rapin, Charlotte Perriand quickly made a break with the furniture tradition. She advocated the use of new materials, particularly metal. She demonstrated this with her Bar sous le toit, presented at the Salon d'Automne in 1927, which won her rave reviews for its luxurious yet relaxed atmosphere, representative of the avant-garde movement.
Throughout her life, Charlotte Perriand sought furniture that was both functional and in keeping with the surrounding architecture. As a result, she created storage units, studied integrated kitchens, sanitary cubicles and even suspended equipment.
Charlotte Perriand and avant-garde designers:
1927 saw the young designer enter the world of the avant-garde. Perriand became an associate of Pierre Jeanneret and Le Corbusier, and took a stand against the academicism of certain salons.
At the Salon d'Automne in 1929, they created furniture designed to be used independently of the rooms. From then on, it was the owner of the space who was considered to be the creator rather than the decorator.
Thatsame year, Charlotte Perriand founded theUnion des Artistes Modernes (UAM)with Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret, Jean Prouvé and Robert Mallet-Stevens.
Charlotte Perriand's commissions, exhibitions and inspirations
In 1940, Charlotte Perriand was invited by the Japanese government as an advisor on industrial design. The artist settled in Tokyo, where she discovered a philosophy, an aestheticism and an art of living that inspired her famous "Nuage"shelving unit.
On her return to France, Charlotte Perriand set up Steph Simon's furniture gallery. This cultural centre published Perriand's furniture until it closed in 1974.
Between 1962 and 1969, she created more "baroque" furniture for her flat in Rio de Janeiro.
Finally, from 1967 to 1986, she took part in the major project to create the ski resorts ofLes Arcs 1600 and Les Arcs 1800. A table with a thick pentagonal top in fir wood assembled with a black lacquered steel base, made for the resort, sold for €1,200 at our auction house by our auction house.
Charlotte Perriand and "en Forme" furniture
Charlotte Perriand also created unique pieces designed for specific spaces. After the1937International Exhibition ,she created the "Table en forme", based on the fixed elements present in her living room, thus conditioning the available space .
This was followed by the "Bureau en forme", consisting of three legs supporting a thick spruce top with an aluminium drawer underneath. Our auction house MILLON sold a shaped desk in varnished ash for for €49,000.
Charlotte Perriand remains one of the greatest inspirers of contemporary design, with her central idea that "the subject is man, not the object". Today, her design objects and her functional, innovative furniture are recognised as iconic pieces of design and are highly prized on the art market.
