The Monte Carlo Sofa found its place in the Roquebrune House. This famous house was the setting for many of Eileen Gray's furniture designs. The stylish sofa model was placed in the basement.
The curves and lines of the sofa leave no doubt about the name of the model. The sophistication and elegance of Eileen Gray's design are also reflected in this furniture design.
Whether Gray was already thinking of the famous Monte Carlo racetrack when she named the upholstered bench is not known unfortunately.
The Monte Carlo is undoubtedly a design spectacle that has immortalised itself in design history. Well-known TV stations and a famous star hairdresser in Stockholm, among others, call this sofa model their own.
Like all our furniture, the Monte Carlo sofa is handmade in selected Italian specialist workshops.
Due to the special situation (pandemic etc.) the production time is starting at approx. 12 weeks. In addition approx. 5 to 9 working days for delivery. Depending on destination. (Status February 2022)
Available in many variants
The Monte Carlo sofa can be ordered in various leather versions or in fabric. The frame and tubular steel frames are high-gloss chrome-plated or can be painted in all standard RAL colours.
Convincing design
This design sofa convinces with its aesthetics, function and timeless appearance. Its aura is almost sublime and not to say impressive for the observer.
Not just simply copied
Our furniture is not simply copied. They are subject to the highest quality standards using the most modern manufacturing techniques. The result is a very durable product which will give you pleasure for many years and again and again.
Craftsmanship from Tuscany
Tuscan craftsmanship made in Italy and many years of experience guarantee the highest quality finish on the Eileen Gray Monte Carlo sofa. Nothing is more unaesthetic than a cheap copy that reveals itself as such at first sight.
More about the designer
Eileen Gray, born on 09.08.1878 in Brwonswood (Ireland) was an extraordinary woman. In what was then known as the "Children's Kitchen Church" Law period, Gray moved and went into the professional world. Her autodidactic knowledge led her to success as an interior and furniture designer, without ever having completed a degree.
The beginning
Eileen Gray's father died in 1900. At that time she had already been learning the trade of a draughtswoman at the Slade School of Fine Arts in London for two years. In 1902 Gray moved to Paris where she continued to devote herself to the arts of drawing and oriental lacquerwork.
Further Information
In 1907 Gray rented a flat at 21 rue Bonaparte, which she kept until the end of her life. In Paris, Gray met the Japanese Sugawara, who introduced her to the art of East Asian lacquer. It was not until six years later that Gray dared to show her own work at an exhibition of interior designers. Gray's works aroused the interest of the couturier Jacques Doucet - an art connoisseur and collector at the time.
The first project
Doucet was refurnishing a house at the time. The style of the interior design was to move away from 18th century art towards modernism. Eileen Gray made two tables and a screen for the Doucet house. These works were dated and signed by Gray.
Return and creative break
At the outbreak of World War 1, Eileen Gray returned to London and took up work as an ambulance driver. After the end of the First World War, Gray returned to her old place of work, Paris, reopening her workshop. Her first major commission was to design a flat in Rue de Lota of Madame Lévy, known as Suzanne Talbot.
The breakthrough
In 1922 Gray opened the Galerie Jean Désert in the Rue du Faubourg St. Honoré. There she exhibited and sold her furniture, screens and lamps. With her "bedroom-boudoir for Monte Carlo", Gray caused controversial criticism in the Paris press in 1923. Among the followers of the "de Stijl" movement, however, it was highly acclaimed. Gray received encouragement from Gropius, Le Corbusier and Mallet-Stevens. Based on this, she ventured into architecture.
Gray's creativity
With the advice of the architectural theorist Jean Badovici and after several years of learning, Gray built a house for herself in Roquebrune. Well thought out including clever interior solutions and details. The other two projects Gray designed were also convincing in their ingenuity and practicality. Further designs, however, were not realised. Until her death in 1976, Gray worked on various newly conceived projects and was always experimenting with new materials. At the age of 80, Gray converted a barn near Saint Tropez into a summer house.
Shortly before her death, Eileen Gray had an exhibition of her most important works at the Museé des Arts Décoratifs in Paris. On 28.11.1976, Gray's eyes closed forever.
Deutsch
English