A forerunner of design, René Gabriel (1899-1950) established himself as a decorative artist in most of the salons and international exhibitions of the interwar period. The discovery of several thousand of his drawings, kept at the National School of Decorative Arts in Paris where he taught, allows us to fully understand the scope of the work of this singular creator who was interested in all everyday objects: furniture, wallpaper, fabric, crockery, rugs, but also architecture, illustration, scenography, advertising ... Adept of wood, this fervent defender of furniture for all distinguished himself at the time of the Reconstruction by inventing many models for disaster victims and forging close links with industry. This commitment earned him wide recognition, crowned by the René-Gabriel Prize which will reward some of the greatest French designers, such as Marcel Gascoin, Pierre Guariche and Michel Boyer.

Text in French.