working with a Japanese lacquer craftsman.21 Gray later stated of their meeting, ‘I was very glad when Sougawara (sic) who was lodging with some friends came to see me and we decided to start a workshop’.22
4.6 Lacquer tools, 1910-1930, wood, metal, hair, pumice stone, pigment, polishing stones © NMI
The Japanese Pavilion left an indelible impression at the Exposition Universelle of 1900 where work from the Rimpa School, notably Ogata Korin (1658-1716), was on display.23 The decision for Sugawara amongst other Japanese lacquer craftsmen to leave Japan for Europe at the time was an indication of how difficult it was to pursue this traditional craft as a career in his native homeland. With the emergence of Art Nouveau at the Paris Exhibition of 1900 the École des Beaux-Arts in Tokyo amongst other schools set up decorative arts departments which permitted artisans like Tsujimura to work in workshops in Paris such as the atelier Gaillard.24 Some artisans worked in appalling conditions; many returned home, others received government grants for the duration of their stay in Paris. For those who settled in Paris, like Sugawara, they appeared to have lived in the district around rue de Théatre.25
Sugawara and Gray formed a very successful partnership. Initially working out of her apartment, they finally opened a workshop in 1910 on the rue Guénégaud where they produced lacquer work.26 He became Gray’s mentor, teaching her this technique, and after she had mastered the art to perfection, he continued to appear on her payroll for lacquer work.
Sugawara was an important lacquer artist in his own right. Jean Dunand (1877-1942), the renowned French lacquer artist who had first met Gray in 1908, came to study under Sugawara after Gray made the initial introduction. Dunand first met Sugawara on 18 February 1912.27 Sugawara had an interest in the dinanderie work of Dunand and they initiated each other into their respective techniques. The first lesson took place on 16 May 1912 and was followed by twelve more, running to July. Gray remained in contact with Dunand and his son Bernard (1908-1998), who would become one of the most important designers from the Art Deco period.
Lacquer, though it has a remarkable lustrous finish, requires a painstaking method of production. True lacquer is a resin drawn from the Rhus vernicifera, peculiar to China and Japan. In its natural state, once it is filtered from its impurities, it forms a dense liquid which when exposed to oxygen under humid conditions dries slowly to form a hard, impermeable surface. The liquid resin is mixed with powdered stone and then Gray usually applied thin layers onto a wood base. The wood had to be smoothed down with a pumice stone and then the grain was filled in. Then the top is concealed with fine silk or hemp which is pasted on with rice gum. To achieve the required result of a lustrous finish usually twenty to thirty coats had to be applied and each layer took several days to dry. Then they were pumiced over again before the next application. Each of these coats had to be applied in a dust-free environment. The drying process took two to four days and initially the most suitable environment she found was her own bathroom.28 In her notebook she recorded that ‘when lacquer has been left some time before applying a fresh coat or relief always clean well by rubbing over with – for black and solid grounds – charcoal powder and water – for delicate grounds tomoko (a type of Japanese clay) and water’.29
Lacquer dries to a rich, dark brown colour when left to dry in its natural form. Yet Gray experimented with natural pigments producing black, brown and brilliant orange and red variations.30 At one point she experimented with the use of cigarette paper instead of gold or silver leaf.31 Each of her experiments in colours, materials and techniques she meticulously began to record in a notebook on lacquer which she used for nearly twenty-five years.32 On how to achieve a rough surface and to give lacquer texture she noted, ‘To make a rugged surface in lacquer give a coat of transparent lacquer and on to it drop grains of the powder of colour chosen, wait about three hours and then cover the whole surface with powder brushing it backwards and forwards about three or more times at intervals of a few hours. Leave it dry about two or three days then wash over with sponge and water to wash off sulphurous powder, dry with very fine rag, when perfectly dry give sesame with colour wood’.33 She learnt the entire process with a lot of patience and when mistakes were made, especially if she applied too much lacquer, it rippled or cracked and she began all over again. The art critic Louis Vauxcelles (1870-1943) observed Gray working and wrote, ‘The slightest error forces her to abandon her work and start anew. An assiduous labour. What a paradox in our frenetic times’.34
Many of the entries in Gray’s lacquer notebook are undated and read like recipes, making them difficult to read but it gives much insight into the laborious and admirable nature of her task and her technique. Gray was the first lacquer artist to successfully achieve the colour blue. Initially her experimentations produced a blue which when dried had a green hue which she disliked. When attempting to achieve this colour she contacted Charles’s workshop in London and was given clear directions. Gray later achieved a new and improved recipe. ‘For blue ground use common ultramarine, add a little chrome green or crimson lake according to the amount required’.35 As Gray’s technique improved the use of other colours did not elude her and she explored the development of yellow, cinnabar and the colour white.
While Gray’s innovativeness is for the large areas of undecorated lacquer, she also recorded in her notebook her achievements in metallic relief, inlaying mother of pearl, eggshell, gilding with both gold and silver and how to incise decoration onto panels. Her research would have been endless if it had not been for the regrettable difficulties in the length of time it took to import lacquer and the fact also that she had hoped to produce for a mass market. In his article in L’Amour de l’art Vauxcelles gave much insight into Gray’s methodology. ‘In the field of the applied arts talent is nothing without professionalism...Eileen Gray knows this. She works with a wise slow method for herself’. He continued, ‘She joins oils to the ordinary varnish, iron sulphate, rice vinegar, then the colours, black, yellow, aventurine, red. She then measures out carefully the gum, black animal dye, tea oil, pork bile, cinnabar, cochineal, coromandel, orpiment. This is the reason for her subdued tones, like the night covered in stars, and the lacquer work of our Irishwoman is encrusted with mother of pearl, coral, semi-precious stones, lapis lazuli, all in harmony with the material and the theme’.36
4.7 Hamanaka’s signature and ideogram signature in coral-red lacquer, detail on sofa, 1935, black lacquer, dyed black rubbed shagreen, wood, coral pigment © Galerie Dutko
Her partnership with Sugawara expanded into a workshop in 1910 at the rue Guénégaud when Gray’s apartment became too cluttered with material. Sugawara also produced sculptural heads which Gray exhibited at Jean Désert. Their working relationship lasted from 1908-1930, after which Gray closed her shop in rue Faubourg St Honoré. Through Sugawara, Gray was introduced to other craftsmen, Ousouda, Kichizo Inagaki (1876-1951), who worked for Rodin, and Katsu Hamanaka (1895-1982), who was a pupil of Sugawara and became a famous lacquer craftsman in Europe from the beginning of the 1930s. Gray kept a Christmas card from Hamanaka after their initial meeting.37
In his own atelier Sugawara employed up to twenty artisans and married one of the polishing assistants.38 When Gray closed her decorating shop Jean Désert, Sugawara took charge of the Rothschild Collection at Cernay-la-Ville. The Rothschilds were clients of Gray’s. He also did work for the artist, writer and Art Deco designer Eyre de Lanux (1894-1996) and Evelyn Wyld (1882-1973) when they opened a decorator’s shop in Cannes. Wyld and Gray had formed a very successful weaving workshop in the rue de Visconti and had remained friends for many years. Sugawara remained in France until his death on 12 April 1937.39
Gray worked with and depended on a number of these Japanese artisans and craftsmen for her commissions. Some were employed for particular tasks
