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| Paul Follot | |
|---|---|
| Name | Paul Follot |
| Birth date | 1877 |
| Death date | 1941 |
| Nationality | French |
| Occupation | Designer, decorator |
| Notable works | Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Maison des Ambassades |
| Movement | Art Nouveau, Art Deco |
Paul Follot was a French designer and decorator active in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, associated with the transition from Art Nouveau to Art Deco. He worked across interiors, furniture, textiles, metalwork and stage design, serving clients among European aristocracy, Parisian salons, and international institutions. His oeuvre influenced decorative arts practice in France, Britain, the United States, Belgium and the Netherlands.
Born in 1877 in France, Follot trained in the artistic milieu that surrounded the École des Beaux-Arts and the École des Arts Décoratifs. He encountered contemporaries linked to the salons and ateliers of Paris such as Hector Guimard, Émile Gallé, René Lalique and Eugène Grasset. His formative years overlapped with exhibitions and institutions like the Exposition Universelle (1900), the Salon d'Automne and the Société des Artistes Décorateurs, where peers including Louis Majorelle, Théo van Rysselberghe, and Paul César Helleu were active.
Follot established a reputation through commissions for interiors, furniture ensembles and decorative schemes for theatres and private mansions. He contributed to projects associated with the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées and collaborated on displays connected to the Galerie Georges Petit and the Galerie d'Orsay. Major works include interiors for embassies and private residences that brought him into contact with patrons linked to the Palais Garnier, Hôtel Ritz, Château de Versailles restoration initiatives, and collectors from Antwerp, London and New York. His career spanned associations with design firms and manufactories comparable to Manufacture nationale de Sèvres, Manufacture des Gobelins, Maison Jansen and the workshops of Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann.
Follot synthesized influences from Art Nouveau figures such as Hector Guimard, Émile Gallé and Louis Comfort Tiffany while anticipating Art Deco sensibilities found in the work of Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann, Jean Dunand, Jacques-Émile Ruhlmann and André Groult. He drew on patterns and motifs evident in tapestries from the Gobelins and furniture traditions linked to André-Charles Boulle, Jean-Henri Riesener and the Regency and Louis XVI repertoires. His vocabulary showed affinities with designers represented at the Salon d'Automne, the Société des Artistes Décorateurs, the International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts (1925), and allied makers such as Georges Hoentschel, Pierre-Émile Legrain and Paul Iribe.
Throughout his career Follot collaborated with firms and artists including the Manufacture de Sèvres, Maison Jansen, the Compagnie des Arts Français, and decorators associated with the Galerie des Artistes Modernes. He worked alongside architects and scenographers in networks that connected to Henri Sauvage, Auguste Perret, Charles Plumet, and Alphonse Mucha. Commercial ventures placed his work in the showrooms frequented by patrons who also commissioned work from Jean-Michel Frank, Serge Chermayeff, Émile Gallé, and Léon Bakst, while he negotiated production with ateliers linked to the Société des Artistes Décorateurs and industrial partners engaged in the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes.
Follot completed commissions for aristocratic and institutional clients across Europe and the United States, including interior schemes for embassies, private townhouses, and cultural institutions. His clientele network intersected with names connected to the Hôtel Ritz clientele, collectors active in the circles of Paul Poiret, Winnaretta Singer, Charles De Beistegui, and designers like Ruhlmann and Jacques-Émile Ruhlmann. He supplied furnishings and textiles comparable to works in collections alongside examples by Jean Dunand, Pierre Legrain, and Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann, and he undertook projects related to institutions such as the Musée Carnavalet, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Follot's impact is visible in the trajectory from Art Nouveau ornament to the sober luxury of Art Deco, influencing designers, workshops and manufacturers in France, Belgium, Britain and the United States. His approach informed practices at Maison Jansen, Compagnie des Arts Français, and the ateliers whose clients included Jean-Michel Frank, Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann, and Jacques-Émile Ruhlmann. Institutions and critics linked to the Salon d'Automne, the Société des Artistes Décorateurs and the International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts recognized his role in shaping modern interior taste alongside peers such as Hector Guimard, André Groult, and Léon Bakst.
Works by Follot have been exhibited and collected by major museums and galleries including the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Musée d'Orsay, the Palais Galliera, and regional museums with holdings related to the Exposition Universelle (1900) and the 1925 International Exhibition. Exhibitions at institutions like the Salon d'Automne, Galerie Georges Petit, Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume, and the Musée Carnavalet have presented his furniture, textiles and decorative ensembles alongside objects by Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann, Jean Dunand, René Lalique, and Paul Iribe.
Category:French designers Category:Art Nouveau designers Category:Art Deco designers