Jacques Quinet

Of the many French designers and architects who gained massive success in the 1940s and ’50s, Jacques Quinet stands out for the longevity and adaptability of his practice. Over the course of his five-decade career, Quinet produced countless designs for tables, chairs, and cabinets, all united by their emphasis on clean, pared-down forms and sense of refined lightness. He began each work with a geometric sketch, from which he would remove every detail he deemed to be unnecessary, drawing his exquisite sense of proportion from early training as an architect. The elegance of Quinet’s designs was also expressed in their careful choices of color and material—he favored lacquered woods and, later in his career, bronze. His many interior commissions included luxury ocean liners and the wartime residence of General Eisenhower.