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Lot Essay
Following the success of the 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes in Paris, Art Deco style swept across New York, emerging to embody the glamour, riches, and success brought about by the 'Roaring Twenties', and immortalized through transformative city landmarks such as the Chrysler building. While Art Deco at this time represented the future of modern decorative arts and architecture, the economic crash of 1929 brought with it the sobering realities of the interwar period, and economic hardship in which Art Deco style and monumental architecture came to take on a new, aspirational significance. Through the momentous construction of New York's Rockefeller Center in the 1930s as an international hub of culture and commerce, Alfred Auguste Janniot's facade of the Center's La Maison Française personified a timeless message of friendship and harmony through the gilded bronze bas-relief 'L'amitié entre l'Amérique et la France'.
The full plaque depicts two female personifications of France and America reaching across the sea in a friendly embrace; bordered by the Three Graces representing Elegance, Beauty, and Poetry in Janniot's distinctive modern decorative style, and Greco-Roman influence. Janniot’s interest in classical themes, as well as mannerist forms were on view during the 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs, with his sculpture 'Hommage à Jean Goujon' at the entrance to Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann's Hôtel du Collectionneur honoring the French Renaissance artist, and reimagining antiquity in the style of Art Moderne.
This success in 1925 lead to Janniot's selection for the Rockefeller project by architects Raymond Hood and Wallace K. Harrison. Harrison in particular admired Janniot's design, and displayed the present original plaster maquette of the 'Élégance' figure in his New York apartment for many years. The gilt bronze bas-relief, with its monumental, yet softly modeled female figures, complemented the austere limestone facades and imposing scale of Rockefeller Center, and bestowed a timeless, yet modern quality through the inclusion of the Three Graces, a classical motif favored by Janniot. The 'Élégance' in particular emphasized Janniot's sculptural mastery of both figure and fabric, and the birds and tendrils of vines creeping up the border of the bas-relief stand out amidst the metropolitan surroundings of New York City.
In Alfred Janniot's depiction, the friendship and camaraderie between the personifications of America and France are endowed by the presence of the Three Graces, who imbue the union with the attributes of Elegance, Beauty, and Poetry. This image, in the refined style of French Art Deco, speaks as much about the ambitions for Rockefeller Center as an international center of business, art, and culture, as it does to the significance of Art Deco at the time, as a symbol of cosmopolitan, modern, and prosperous times to strive towards.
The full plaque depicts two female personifications of France and America reaching across the sea in a friendly embrace; bordered by the Three Graces representing Elegance, Beauty, and Poetry in Janniot's distinctive modern decorative style, and Greco-Roman influence. Janniot’s interest in classical themes, as well as mannerist forms were on view during the 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs, with his sculpture 'Hommage à Jean Goujon' at the entrance to Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann's Hôtel du Collectionneur honoring the French Renaissance artist, and reimagining antiquity in the style of Art Moderne.
This success in 1925 lead to Janniot's selection for the Rockefeller project by architects Raymond Hood and Wallace K. Harrison. Harrison in particular admired Janniot's design, and displayed the present original plaster maquette of the 'Élégance' figure in his New York apartment for many years. The gilt bronze bas-relief, with its monumental, yet softly modeled female figures, complemented the austere limestone facades and imposing scale of Rockefeller Center, and bestowed a timeless, yet modern quality through the inclusion of the Three Graces, a classical motif favored by Janniot. The 'Élégance' in particular emphasized Janniot's sculptural mastery of both figure and fabric, and the birds and tendrils of vines creeping up the border of the bas-relief stand out amidst the metropolitan surroundings of New York City.
In Alfred Janniot's depiction, the friendship and camaraderie between the personifications of America and France are endowed by the presence of the Three Graces, who imbue the union with the attributes of Elegance, Beauty, and Poetry. This image, in the refined style of French Art Deco, speaks as much about the ambitions for Rockefeller Center as an international center of business, art, and culture, as it does to the significance of Art Deco at the time, as a symbol of cosmopolitan, modern, and prosperous times to strive towards.