Dufrêne Maurice

Biography

Maurice Dufrêne was born in Paris in 1876. From an early age he showed an affinity for furniture, gathering scraps from his father's workshop to use in designs of his own.

Dufrêne showed his own work for first time in 1902, and from 1903 on exhibited regularly at the Salon d'Automne and the Salons of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts.

He couldn't ignore this interest for long, and abandoned his study of painting at the École des Arts Decoratifs to work for Julius Meier-Grafe at La Maison Moderne, a gallery that employed a staff of artists.

In 1904 he helped to found the Société des Artistes Décorateurs, which quickly became one of France's most prominent organizations of contemporary designers, hosting a popular annual salon of its own. He would exhibit there for the next thirty years.