Hiboux au Clair de Lune, A Wrought Iron and Repoussage Light Fixture

By Michel Zadounaisky, circa 1930

Stamped ZADOUNAISKY

24 ½ in (62.2 cm) high, 25 in (63.5 cm) wide, 11 in (28 cm) deep

cf. Thierry Roche, Les Arts Décoratifs à Lyon, 1910-1950, 1999, pp. 56-59

Born in Odessa, Russia in 1903, Michel Zadounaisky was a descendant of an important Russian family. It is believed that his grandparents were close friends to the Russian tsar. As a young boy, Michel took after his father, a skilled electrical engineer who worked on factory installations across Europe. Around 1916, his parents settled in Lyon. Michel left home and enrolled himself in the Beaux-Arts in October 1919, only to leave the school in May 1920 to enter the manufacture de lustrerie Fournet where he began to perfect his skill in working with wrought iron, in particular the technique of repoussage.

In 1924, Zadounaisky set up his workshop at 76 rue Béchevelin. That same year, he presented at the Salon d’Automne a console of inspirationrom 1925 with stylised roses in an interior of André Sornay. From that point on, Zadounaisky could be considered a qualified sculptor of metal. In fact, he considered himself just as much an artist as he was a craftsman. He said, ‘The art of metalwork is a complete trade, it is necessary of the biceps, and it is necessary of the brain. My work and my life do only one.’

Influenced by the style of the times, in 1926 Zadounaisky exhibited a radiator in the art deco style at the Salon de la métallurgie du fer in Lyon. After this, he continued to exhibit and produce pieces, particularly of animal subjects, both furniture and lighting items. During his first years of production, Zadounaisky worked in precarious conditions, without electricity and with only a hammer and a chisel. This demonstrates his remarkable talent for highly skilled work in extreme working conditions. Of all the metalworkers of this era, Zadounaisky remains the only one to have constructed a completely personal oeuvre of work.