The Piano of Rupert Carabin In Musée des Arts Décoratifs

A very delicate piano is kept in the In Musée des Arts Décoratifs, designed by Rupert Carabin, a French woodcarver and furniture designer. Applying nude human figures like the design of The Piano of Rubert Carabin in Musée Des Arts Décoratifs was a permanent tradition in art from Ancient Greek to the middle ages. This tradition also continued in the Renaissance period. Subsequently, in artistic movements such as Art Nouveau and Art Deco, modelling female nudes had more artistic intent than erotic.Subsequently, in the artistic movements as Art Nouveau and Art Deco, modelling female nudes had more artistic intent than erotic. Illustrating a nude model was, and still is, one of the usual art educative methods for apprentices of art to develop their sense of observation and proportion. François-Rupert Carabin is one of the sculptors in Modern history who drew his inspirations from nude body themes. For a period in his life, he attended dissection halls of the Medicine Faculty for anatomy’s studies of the human body. Like Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, one of his contemporaries, he also visited cabarets and café’s to sketch the brothels, study the prostitutes’ photographic images, and follow them as a subject model. His nude art is aesthetically valued and stunning.

François-Rupert Carabin was a French medal maker, goldsmith, woodcarver and furniture designer. He worked with various materials such as clay, ceramics, bronze and wood. As a brilliant furniture decorator, he cut deep grooves on wood, used sculpted elements attached to the plane surfaces and materialized raised forms above the solid wooden backgrounds. His nude figures and the formed human limbs as integral parts of his designs conjoined his furniture components. They were applied as handles and pedestals of his chairs and cabinets.

Carabin joined the Vienna Secession to react to the conservative art institutions and was like-minded with other progressive artists. He was aware that mass production minimized artistic values, knowing that the era of creating a unique product was over. In the last period of his life, he focused on educational work and gave up production work. As the director of the School of Decorative Arts in Strasbourg, he tried to modify and improve the academic learning processes of applied art.

The piano designed by Carabin is a part of Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris. This artwork displays Carabin creative ideas and the performance of his artistic work.

Designer: François-Rupert Carabin (1862-1932)
Piano manufactured by Henri Hertz     
Material: Carved walnut
Presented at the Universal Exhibition of 1900 by the Hertz house
Art Nouveau room, Museum of Decorative Arts

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Text: Lalerou
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