A pair important gilt-bronze wall lights of organic art nouveau form almost certainly designed and executed by Maurice Dufrene for La Société des Artistes Français but apparently unsigned. Both wall lights maintain their original gilding but the patina of each bracket is ever so slightly different to each other. The orignal, delicate and exquistly blown French lily lampshades are of a light blue opalecence to the body with strong pink/cranberry  shading to the tips.   France c.1905

Provenance: see photo of twin-arm version of wall lights presented by the La Société des Artistes Français of which Dufrene was a founding member.

Ht.(backplate)24cm/9.5in, W.10/4, Dpth.44/17.5, W.(shade)19/7.5

Maurice Dufrêne

• Maurice Dufrêne was born in Paris in 1876. From an early age he showed an affinity for furniture, gathering scraps from his father’s workshop to use in designs of his own.
• Dufrêne showed his own work for first time in 1902, and from 1903 on exhibited regularly at the Salon d’Automne and the Salons of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts.
• He couldn’t ignore this interest for long, and abandoned his study of painting at the École des Arts Decoratifs to work for Julius Meier-Grafe at La Maison Moderne, a gallery that employed a staff of artists.
• In 1904 he helped to found the Société des Artistes Décorateurs, which quickly became one of France’s most prominent organizations of contemporary designers, hosting a popular annual salon of its own. He would exhibit there for the next thirty years.