Style Art Deco / Ref.9268

Pair of wrought iron doors from the 1940's by Subes.

Pair of wrought iron gates with delicate curved lines from the 1940's attributed to Raymond Subes.

Raymond Subes is one of the most renowned French metalworkers of the Art Deco period. His notoriety as an ironworker is practically equal to that of Edgar Brandt. Former student of the Boulle School and the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs, he assisted in ushering the Art Deco style. His works included grills, staircases, and furniture.
He started work in a little studio in 1916 that Robert Emile opened at Enghien-les-Bains. The ironworking studios of 131 rue de Damrémont, count among the most important in all of France. The quality of execution was impeccable. The décor, typically Art Deco, marks the rising trend toward a pure style which includes stripped calligraphy, nervous with arabesques, interlacing, concentric circles, geometric motifs, and abstract motifs which are all particularly characteristic of the 1930's.
In 1919, Subes entered the establishment Borderel et Robert, a major architectural construction company for metalwork, and became the Directeur Général des Etablissements. He later becomes the Chef du Bureau de Dessin and then Director of the ironworking studio.
Overflowing with activities, Raymond Subes exhibited a quantity of his grills, staircases, balconies, furnishings and furniture (starting in 1919) at many salons and large artistic events. At the exhibition of Decorative Arts in 1925, he worked for many pavilions, notably for the Salon de l'Hôtel du Collectionneur by Ruhlmann. Subes received much work through government commissions such as those for a large number of large ocean liners including L'Ile de France in 1927, L 'Atlantique in 1931, Le Normandie in 1962, Le Liberté in 1950, and Le France in 1962.
He also fulfilled commissions for some banks, including the Banque de France and the National City Bank aux Champs-Elysées, the Institut Pasteur, the Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations, the Musée de la France d'Outre-mer (currently the Musée des Arts d'Afrique et d'Océanie, porte Dorée in Paris).
Subes commercial work is usually unsigned and often incorporated into fixtures, making it most difficult to identify. Typically one has to use his naturalistic and fluid style as identification.
Subes initial work was in wrought iron, occasionally bronze and copper. Later in his career, by the 1930s, Subes added aluminum and oxidized or lacquered steel to his materials.