Maison Jansen

Maison Jansen
Name	Maison Jansen
Founded	1880s
Founder	François Jansen
Defunct	1980s
Headquarters	Paris, France
Notable projects	Royal Palace interiors, White House redecoration, Hôtel Lambert restoration

Maison Jansen Maison Jansen was an international interior design firm based in Paris active from the late 19th century through the 20th century. The firm served monarchs, heads of state, aristocrats, and cultural institutions across Europe and the Americas, blending historicism with modern production for clients including royalty and presidents. Its ateliers collaborated with decorators, architects, and manufacturers from Paris to New York, contributing to landmark commissions in residences, embassies, hotels, and museums.

History

Founded by François Jansen in Paris during the late 1880s, the firm expanded under successive directors amid the Belle Époque, World War I, the interwar period, World War II, and the postwar era. Early patrons included members of the Rothschild family, prompting commissions tied to Palais Garnier events and salons frequented by Marcel Proust and Émile Zola. During the 1920s and 1930s Maison Jansen worked alongside architects associated with Hector Guimard, Charles Garnier, and Henri-Paul Nénot, and later engaged with clients connected to the House of Bourbon, House of Habsburg, and House of Savoy. Postwar projects brought the firm into contact with figures such as Winston Churchill through state gifting, Dwight D. Eisenhower via allied occupation networks, and John F. Kennedy through diplomatic circles. The firm’s Paris headquarters maintained workshops linked to Manufacture Nationale de Sèvres, ateliers producing silk for Maison Duvivier, and furniture makers supplying for Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann salons. Decline in commissions and changing tastes in the 1970s led to closure in the early 1980s.

Notable Projects and Commissions

Major commissions included royal apartments for the Belgian royal family at the Royal Palace of Brussels and interiors for palaces associated with the Spanish royal household and the Greek monarchy. Maison Jansen undertook high-profile diplomatic interiors for embassies including the French Embassy in Washington and state rooms at the British Embassy in Paris; these projects connected the firm with figures such as Charles de Gaulle, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, and Anthony Eden. The firm’s redecoration of the White House during Jacqueline Kennedy’s restoration program intersected with advisors like Henry Francis du Pont and André Malraux and involved coordination with Smithsonian curators and Metropolitan Museum staff. Other commissions encompassed the Hôtel Lambert restoration on Île Saint-Louis, interiors for the Hôtel de Crillon, and private apartments for the Rockefeller, Astor, Vanderbilt, and Onassis families. Maison Jansen also furnished ocean liner salons for companies like Compagnie Générale Transatlantique and created interiors for hotels tied to César Ritz and Auguste Escoffier enterprises.

Design Style and Influence

The firm synthesized elements drawn from French neoclassicism, English Regency, Louis XVI, Empire, Second Empire, and Art Deco, referencing artisans such as André-Charles Boulle, Thomas Chippendale, Georges Jacob, and Jean-Henri Riesener. Its practice incorporated historic motifs alongside contemporary production methods influenced by designers like Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann, Le Corbusier, and Charlotte Perriand while maintaining upholstery techniques associated with Maison Treca and textile patterns from Liberty of London and William Morris. Decorative schemes often used Sèvres porcelain, Meissen porcelain, Aubusson tapestries, and Lalique glass, situating work in dialogue with museums such as Musée du Louvre, Victoria and Albert Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Musée des Arts Décoratifs. The firm’s aesthetic impacted later interior practices at institutions like the Getty Museum and influenced designers including Sister Parish, Albert Hadley, David Hicks, and Syrie Maugham.

Key Personnel and Collaborators

Key figures associated with the firm included François Jansen (founder), Pierre-Philippe Jemecourt (director), Stéphane Boudin, and decorator Paul-Louis Weiller, who liaised with clients such as Jacqueline Kennedy, Brooke Astor, and Henry Francis du Pont. Collaborators spanned architects and artists like André Lecomte du Nouÿ, Auguste Perret, Pierre Chareau, Jean-Michel Frank, and Gio Ponti, and craftsmen linked to institutions like Manufacture de Sèvres, École des Beaux-Arts, Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers, and Ateliers de Paris. The firm worked with galleries and dealers such as Galerie Charpentier, Galerie Georges Petit, Christie’s, Sotheby’s, and dealers handling works by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, Eugène Delacroix, Édouard Manet, Claude Monet, Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, and Marc Chagall for integrated interior schemes.

Business Structure and Legacy

Operated as a private atelier and commercial firm, Maison Jansen maintained offices in Paris and branches serving clients in London, New York, and Rome, interacting with financial houses including Banque de France, J. P. Morgan & Co., and Banque Rothschild. The firm contracted with industrial makers like Thonet, F. W. Gannex, and Haviland & Co., and engaged with preservation bodies such as Historic England, Comité des Arts et Traditions Populaires, and UNESCO during conservation projects. Its archive, dispersed in estate sales and auctions at Sotheby’s and Christie’s, influenced scholarship at institutions like the Getty Research Institute, Paul Mellon Centre, and Bibliothèque nationale de France. Maison Jansen’s closure prompted reassessment by historians connected to Yale University, Columbia University, University of Oxford, and Institut d’Art et d’Archéologie.

Collections and Exhibitions

Works and documentation connected to the firm have been exhibited by the Victoria and Albert Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Musée d’Orsay, Cooper Hewitt, and Musée Carnavalet. Retrospectives and exhibitions at Musée des Arts Décoratifs involved loans from private collections including items sold through Christie’s and Sotheby’s that once belonged to patrons such as the Rothschilds, Rockefellers, Kennedys, and Astors. Archives and material culture related to projects have been catalogued by the Getty Research Institute, Paul Mellon Centre, Bibliothèque nationale de France, and Princeton University Art Museum, informing scholarship, dissertations, and exhibitions at institutions like the Frick Collection, Winterthur Museum, and National Gallery of Art.

Category:Interior design firms Category:French design firms Category:Historic preservation