André Groult

André Pierre Émile Groult was born in Paris on 27 August 1884. He studied science at the Sorbonne, earning a degree in 1906, and worked briefly for his father's journal, L'Acclimatation, before turning to design. No source consulted documents formal art school training; a specialist Art Deco research group has noted that no evidence of such training has been found. In 1907 he married Nicole Poiret, sister of the couturier Paul Poiret, linking him to one of the leading creative circles of prewar Paris.

Groult made his debut at the Salon d'Automne in 1910. By 1912 he was exhibiting with the Société des Artistes Décorateurs at the Pavillon de Marsan, and he produced wallpaper designs during this same period. His reputation was made at the 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes in Paris, where his Chambre de Madame, a ladies' bedchamber, became one of the most discussed interiors of the fair, built around curvilinear forms and shagreen-clad furniture. In 1935 he designed first-class cabin interiors for the ocean liner SS Normandie, extending his Art Deco vocabulary into a major public commission.

Groult died in 1966 according to the majority of published sources, though at least one market database, MutualArt, gives 1967. No source consulted provides an exact date or place of death.

Design historians consistently place Groult among the small circle of Art Deco designers who paired modern, curvilinear form with traditional French craft techniques such as shagreen, lacquer, and fine cabinetmaking. His reputation rests almost entirely on commissions and expositions rather than on formal prizes; no named award or official honor for Groult could be documented in the sources reviewed. The 1925 Chambre de Madame remains the touchstone reference in nearly every account of his career, and later writers on the SS Normandie's interiors treat his cabin designs as a continuation of that project's ambitions.

Groult's work trades on the secondary market rather than through a living gallery or estate. Design specialists including Maison Gerard, Todd Merrill Studio, and Soyun K deal in his furniture, and it appears at auction houses such as Sotheby's, Phillips, and Wright. His most prominent recent auction appearance is An Important and Rare Cabinet, circa 1926, offered at Sotheby's New York on 22 April 2026 as part of the Collection of Jean and Terry de Gunzburg: Design Masters sale, with a pre-sale estimate of USD 600,000 to 800,000. The realized price for that lot, and a verified all-time auction record for the artist, could not be confirmed from public sources at the time of writing.

There is no catalogue raisonne for Groult, and no estate or foundation manages authentication, so attribution depends on provenance, dealer expertise, and comparison with securely documented commissions. Some pieces circulate in the trade described only as "in the manner of André Groult" with an unknown maker, and these should not be treated as authenticated works by the artist. Public price data for Groult is thin: detailed auction totals and a confirmed all-time record are largely locked behind subscription databases, so collectors should treat any single high estimate, like the USD 600,000 to 800,000 cabinet offered at Sotheby's in 2026, with care rather than as proof of a broad, liquid market. Collectors should also note that even basic biographical facts, such as his year of death, are not fully settled across major reference sources.