Repository: Dumbarton Oaks Archives, Washington, D.C.
Call Number: Rateau Drawings
Location: Archives 058, C4
Name of Creator(s): Armand Albert Rateau and Various Office Staff
Title: Armand Albert Rateau Architectural Plans and Drawings
Inclusive Date: ca. 1929–1930
Language(s): French
Quantity: 15 drawings
Administrative Information
Acquisition Information: These plans and drawings came to Dumbarton Oaks at an unknown date.
Processing Information: The Armand Albert Rateau Architectural Plans and Drawings were inventoried by James N. Carder in 2002.
Terms of Use and Access: These plans and drawings can be used for research and publication purposes.
Physical Access: An appointment is required for access to these plans and drawings. For appointment and queries, fill out the online form.
Preferred Citation: Armand Albert Rateau Architectural Plans and Drawings, Dumbarton Oaks Archives. Courtesy of Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Washington, D.C.
Historical Note
Armand Albert Rateau (1882–1938) was a French designer and architect active in the 1920s and 1930s. He worked for a small group of prominent and wealthy private clients and secured several prestigious French government commissions to decorate and refurnish Ministry offices and foreign embassies. Alastair Duncan (1990) described him as a “Neo-Classical Modernist” owing to his interest in Greek and Roman antiquity. In 1905, Rateau was appointed artistic director of the decorating company Alavoine & Cie. where, among other projects, he designed boutiques for the jewelry companies, Tiffany and Boucheron. In 1919, Rateau resigned from Alavoine to found his own company, and in November of that year he sailed to New York and encountered the Blumenthals, who became his first clients. Rateau's most important patron was the couturier Jeanne Lanvin. As the artistic director of Lanvin Decoration, he went on to decorate her properties outside Paris and at Deauville and created interiors for her shops, Lanvin Sport and Lanvin Homme. His last major collaboration with Lanvin was the Pavillon de L'Élégance at the 1925 Parisian Exposition internationale des arts décoratifs et industriels modernes. In 1927 he was commissioned by Mrs. Wilson-Filmer, later Lady Baillie, to restore the late-medieval wood carving at Leeds Castle in Kent, which involved work on the external structure as well as the interior stairwell of the Gloriette. In the latter part of his career, Rateau was involved in designing several buildings in a grand, Neoclassical style. In 1926, Rateau was engaged by the Blisses’ architect, Lawrence Grant White, to reproduce a French Renaissance painted-beam ceiling for the Dumbarton Oaks Music Room. In 1928, Mildred Bliss commissioned Rateau to re-design the Living Room (now Founders’ Room) and Oval Salon at Dumbarton Oaks and to create various hardscape elements for the gardens.
Scope and Content
The Armand Albert Rateau architectural plans and drawings comprise material for renovations to the Dumbarton Oaks Oval Salon undertaken between 1929 and 1930.
Extent
15 drawings.
Collection Inventory and Description
A.A. Rateau
97, Boulevard Berthier
Paris
Ca. 1929–1930 drawings for the renovation of the Oval Salon.
- Aff. No. 6697, Salon Ovale, Elévation, [bl]. 4 copies: 2 dated 2/18/1930 and 2 undated.
- Aff. No. 6697, Salon Ovale, Embrasement de fenêtre, [bl], undated.
- Aff. No. 6697, Salon Ovale, [Elevation], [bl], undated.
- Aff. No. 6697, Salon Ovale, Plan, [bl], 6/20/1930.
Ca. 1929–1930 drawings for the renovation of the Living Room (now Founders’ Room).
- Aff. no. 6697 Living Room, Plan, Decembre 1929, Plan modifié le 25 Juillet 1930, [bl], 7/25/1930.
- Aff. no. 6697 Living Room, Elévation Face A, Decembre 1929, Elévation modifiée le 25 Juillet 1930, [bl], 7/25/1930.
- Aff. no. 6697 Living Room, Elévation Face B, Decembre 1929, Elévation modifiée le 25 Juillet 1930, [bl], 7/25/1930.
- Aff. no. 6697 Living Room, Elévation Face C, Decembre 1929, Elévation modifiée le 25 Juillet 1930, [bl], 7/25/1930.
- Aff. no. 6697 Living Room, Elévation de la Loggia, Decembre 1929, Elévation modifiée le 25 Juillet 1930, [bl], 7/25/1930.
- Affaire 6697 6990, Living Room – Loggia, Detail de la cornice et de la rampe lumineuse, [bl and colored pencil], 11/2/1930.
- Aff. 6697 / 6990 Living Room, Modification de la porte donnant sur Galerie: Elévation montrant les volets fermés; Coupe; Elévation montrant les volets ouverts; Plan, 2/18/1930.
A.A. Rateau
Architecte
17 Quai de Conti
17 Paris, VIe
- Dessin à l’echelle de 0m 10 par mètre pour le montage et la pose des volets coulissantes, [bl], undated.