René-Jean Caillette (1919 - 2005)

"The simplicity of its forms is not that of ascetic minimalism, but the product of an ethic that knows how to combine beauty with the greatest discretion".
Patrick Favardin, art historian, in The Decorators of the 50s, Editions Norma



Son of a Parisian cabinetmaker with whom he learned to master wood, René-Jean Caillette studied brilliantly: he graduated as promotion major of the furniture section of the National School of Decorative Arts in 1937.

Caillette has a clear vision of what he expects from design: he wants furniture with simple and functional lines, accessible to as many people as possible. Initially associated with Marcel Gascoin, he became his own publisher and one of the best model designers of the 1950s. At the origin of various groups of very influential creators (the Saint Honoré group, the Group 4, and the ACMS), he participated in the largest exhibitions in France and internationally.

We owe him some iconic pieces like his molded plywood "Diamond" chair: "It is, he said, my model the purest and easiest to make, I drew him with a piece of cardboard, telling myself that if the cardboard could bend, the wood would bend. "