Janine Abraham & Dirk-Jan Rol

Armchair AR 1956, Soleil

Edition Service Propaganda du rotin – 1956
Rattan of Manila and marrow of rattan

Model chosen by the decorator Jean Royère to the arrangement of one of the gardens of the Shah of Iran.

This chair, often considered the most beautiful rattan chair in the world, is the result of research conducted by Janine Abraham and Dirk Jan Rol on the modernization of rattan. With the help of Rougier, the publisher specializing in this material, they designed and produced some exceptional pieces of furniture that were presented at Parisian trade shows in the mid-1950s. This is one of the rare models of their creation that was produced in probably a few dozen copies, not more. The interest of this armchair lies in the appropriation of the traditional technique and in its use of a modern comfort and form.

The couple uses the intrinsic flexibility of the material to bend it and create a double structure that will give the chair its resistance and comfort, but also its shape since it is the maximum radius of curvature of the rattan the determines the proportion. Finally the talent of the couple will be to make all of these criteria fit into a rigorous and almost abstract geometrical form. This cross between a torus and a hyperboloid of revolution gives such an obvious impression that it seems to be a natural form and yet so sculptural.