About Sue & Mare

Andre Mare and Louis Sue were trained painters. Mare studied at the Academie Julian. Both Sue and Mare turned to interior design as early as 1905. Due to their lack of a design or craft training, both Sue and Mare were grouped with the Coloristes in Paris before the First World War. Their association in La Compagnie des Arts Francais helped give birth to the Art Decco movement. Initially, Mare was involved with Duchamp Villon's Maison Cubiste in 1912, while Sue worked with Poiret until the founding of La Maison Martine. In that same year 1912, Sue set up his own decorating firm, L'atelier Francais. His association with Mare began in 1914 and became a partnership in 1919 with the foundation of La Compagnie des Arts Francais which lasted until 1928. While the work of Ruhlmann ushered in the Art Deco period, artistic contributions from Sue et Mare in combination with Frank, Lelue, Chareau, and Rousseau among others give us the wealth of pieces that made the period so formidable. Sue et Mare worked across the spectrum of the decorative arts from wallpapers to furniture. Their furniture used exotic woods and was clearly inspired by traditional French styles. Handmade furniture emanating from the modernist movements in France, Austria and Germany, inspired "frameless" Waterfall furniture is a catchall term for furniture that employs curved or rounded horizontal edges; hence, the term "waterfall". The furniture uses unusual veneer designs and often has clever Bakelite handles. The ultra-exclusive French firm of Sue et Mare is a major source of these designs. At the 1925 Paris Exposition their pavilion, Un Musee d'Art Contemporian, rivaled Ruhlmann's and the firm also exhibited furniture in the Ambassade Francaise and the Perfums d'Orsay boutique among other pavilions. The partnership ended in 1928 and Sue continued work in France throughout the 1930s.