![bethan fantastical london home bethan fantastical london home](https://freshshootstudios.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Caswell-House-Wedding-Photography-by-Fresh-Shoot-Studios-62.jpg)
She sought out the Japanese lacquer master, Seizo Sugawara, who agreed to train her in the technique. By 1906, she’d made up her mind to focus on screens and panels instead (something “useful”, as she saw it). Gray moved to Paris in 1902 where she studied drawing at the Academie Julian – but once again, didn’t enjoy it. Here’s what you need to know about the life and work of Eileen Gray. As Gray put it: “I was not a pusher and maybe that’s the reason I did not get the place I should have had.”
![bethan fantastical london home bethan fantastical london home](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/59/b6/97/59b697545e60fbbb6a50fe65d8fded36.jpg)
How did Gray evade critical attention for so long? Women were largely absent from the Parisian decorative arts scene where Gray was working as a young designer – and she was also deeply shy, and uncomfortable with self-promotion. She found acclaim at the age of 94, before passing away aged 98, in 1976. After finding success as a furniture designer, she turned to architecture and with no formal training, created an iconic building that reinstated warmth and comfort as principle tenets of Modernist design. Eileen Gray’s story, at least, has a happy ending: her unique creative force was recognised in her lifetime – if only just and decades too late.Įileen Gray was a pioneer who carved out her space in the hostile, male-centric world of Modernism.
![bethan fantastical london home bethan fantastical london home](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/e9/ce/d7/e9ced79fb798aac506c78c9e99971ea5.jpg)
It’s a story as old as art history – a woman, ingenious and indefatigable, produces groundbreaking work while eluding critical attention for her entire career.