Stephen A. Schwarzman Building > Exhibitions

The Art Deco Bookbindings of Pierre Legrain and Rose Adler

From February 27, 2004 through June 12, 2004
Sue and Edgar Wachenheim III Gallery (First Floor)
Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, 5th Avenue and 42nd Street, New York, NY 10018-2788 (directions)

Companion Volume

French bookbinders led the world in their craft in the earlier part of the 20th century, especially from the 1920s to the 50s, and fostered the designer-bookbinder movement that took firm root in several other countries. Two of the most influential were Pierre Legrain and Rose Adler, who between them created some 525 bindings for Jacques Doucet, the French bibliophile, couturier, collector, and philanthropist. A highly select group of 43 Art Deco bindings, drawn from the Bibliothèque littéraire Jacques Doucet in Paris — plus two rare examples from The New York Public Library's Spencer Collection — will be featured in the exhibition. The majority of these bindings have never been exhibited before.

Pierre Legrain (1889-1929) is credited with revolutionizing bookbinding design in France. Legrain, who had studied theater design and applied art, serendipitously came to design bookbindings. Leaving the French Army in 1916 with a medical discharge, the unemployed Legrain turned to Doucet, for whom he had designed furniture before the war. Doucet assigned him the task of designing bindings for the contents of his library. Although he knew nothing about bookbinding, Legrain executed a series of trailblazing designs, which changed the face of designer-bookbinding in Europe in a mere dozen years. An unusual metal binding will be among the splendid Legrain bindings on display. A native of Paris, Rose Adler (1890-1959) was a founding member of the Société de la Reliure Originale, and specialized in the application of gold tooling. Before turning to bindings, however, she designed clothing, furniture, and jewelry. A highlight of Adler's rich and colorful designs is a binding with jade encrustations.

The Bibliothèque littéraire Jacques Doucet, a principal institution for the study of French arts and letters, collects French literature from Baudelaire to contemporary writers. Its collections contain the archives of such writers as Apollinaire, Aragon, Baudelaire, Breton, Desnos, Eluard, Gide, Mallarmé, Malraux, Mauriac, Rimbaud, Tzara, Valéry, and Verlaine.

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