In 1912, Süe and Mare founded their ‘Atelier Français’, which they renamed ‘Compagnie des Artistes Français’ after the First World War in 1919. Süe was an architect and interior designer, Mare a painter, illustrator and furniture designer. The goal of their partnership was to combine all the elements of the interior design in a meaningful, harmonious way. Of course, both artists also designed lighting objects or entrusted members of their group with them.
Süe&Mare regularly took part in the exhibitions at the Autumn Salon. In the French Pavilion and the Museum of Contemporary Art, both of which were built and furnished by the Compagnie des Artistes Français, they presented their lamps at the International Exhibition in 1925, which were praised in detail by Guillaume Janneau in his portfolio >Le Luminaire< . There were table lamps with alabaster flowers on a wrought iron base, crystal chandeliers, six-armed wall sconces made of bronze and glass beads, as well as floor lamps in which the six-part construction made of frosted glass was designed as a stylized water fountain, or those with grained alabaster bowls on column-like, black-patinated wrought iron stands. A unique creation by Süe et Mare was a glass flower basket that could be lit from the inside. However, most of the designs did not go beyond the conventional in terms of conception and execution.
Source: Alastair Duncan, Lampen Lüster Leuchter, Jugendstil Art Déco, Prestel-Verlag, München 1979, p. 187
Picture: Guillaume Janneau, Le Luminaire, Art Deco Lampen 1925-1937, Arnold’sche Verlagsanstalt, 1992, p. 59.
