Louis Majorelle Sold at Auction Prices

Painter of Evening Scenes, b. 1859 - d. 1926

Louis-Jean-Sylvestre Majorelle, usually known simply as Louis Majorelle, (26 September 1859 – 15 January 1926) was a French decorator and furniture designer who manufactured his own designs, in the French tradition of the ébéniste. He was one of the outstanding designers of furniture in the Art Nouveau style, and after 1901 formally served as one of the vice-presidents of the École de Nancy.

Majorelle was born in Toul. In 1861, his father, Auguste Majorelle (1825 – 1879), who himself was a furniture designer and manufacturer, moved the family from Toul to Nancy. There, Louis finished his initial studies before moving to Paris in 1877 for two years of work at the École des Beaux-Arts. On the death of his father, he cut short his studies and returned to Nancy to oversee the family's manufactories of faience and furniture. This would occupy him for the rest of his life.

On 7 April 1885, Majorelle married Marie Léonie Jane Kretz (06/12/1864 – 31/12/1912), daughter of the director of the municipal theaters in Nancy. Their only child, Jacques Majorelle, who himself would become an artist, was born 7 March 1886.