At Home In Colette's Apartment

The acclaimed French designer Jacques Grange was destined to possess his Paris apartment, once home to the novelist Colette. After Colette died in 1954, her floor-through overlooking the lush gardens of the Palais Royal remained in the family until 1990, when Colette’s stepdaughter offered it to Grange. What a lucky SOB!!! “The architecture is very classical 18th century—exactly matching the Palais Royal garden outside—but the furniture, lighting and decorative objects are a mix of pure Art Déco, contemporary and 18th century,” Jacques Grange says of the residence he designed for himself in Paris. In the living room are a pair of 1925 club chairs by Francis Jourdain.
Colette's apartment, has a small salon, where an 18th-century mahogany table coexists with a 1930s bronze console by Jean-Michel Frank. Hiroshi Sugimoto’s 1991 photograph The Black Sea hangs over a 1970 work by Donald Judd. At right is a 1950 ebony sculpture by Alexandre Noll. The light fixture is by Ron Arad.
A Cubist-style glazed ceiling he designed illuminates the dining room, which has the feel of a “winter garden.” The circa 1900 lantern is by Greene & Greene. Rubelli dining chair fabric.
Grange enveloped the library in modern oak paneling and installed light fixtures Damien Hirst designed for the Pharmacy restaurant in London. Three photographs by Man Ray, at left, hang below a 1927 triptych by Christian B’rard.
Woven horsehair covers the walls of the bedroom, which has a “Neoclassical” sensibility, the designer explains. The lamp at left is by Jean-Michel Frank; at right is a lamp by Alberto Giacometti.
Grange has been buying art for over 40 years. “I bought a Toulouse-Lautrec when I was 18,” he says. He has always haunted galleries and museums. He looks like a happy guy, as well he should be!