Eileen Gray

Eileen Gray was an Irish designer and architect, and a pioneer of the Modern Movement in architecture. Born in Enniscorthy in 1878, she studied drawing and painting in London, until she discovered her passion for lacquered furniture in a shop in the Soho district, which led her to move to Paris in 1907 to study with Seizo Sugawara, a Japanese master of the wood lacquering technique. She gained notoriety in 1919 following the decoration of Suzanne Talbot's living room, for which she designed some furniture. Prompted by fellow architect Jean Badovici and Le Corbusier, Eileen began studying architecture in 1924: the result was her most emblematic work, the Villa E-1027 in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, on the French Riviera. She died in Paris in 1976.