No one really agrees on the origin of the Emmanuelle armchair. Since 1974, it has taken its name from the eponymous film, the story of a young woman who cheats her boredom by realizing her fantasies in the exotic setting of Bangkok. An archetype of the colonial style, her armchair is said to be of Oceanian origin. Unless its history comes from elsewhere, on the American continent…
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When King Pomare V sat enthroned on his Peacock chair
The movie Emmanuelle was a real revolution when it was released in 1974. Seen by eight million spectators, it ended with Sylvia Kristel, who plays the role of Emmanuelle, touching up her makeup in front of her mirror, surrounded by the back of her peacock chair. Unprecedented: for the first time, censorship authorized the release of such a sensual film outside of specialized theaters. Why? Thanks to the election of a young and modern president, Valéry Giscard d’Estaing… Eroticism was fashionable, bourgeois families adopted the armchair in their home, a fun way to spice up their daily lives.
The story commonly It is generally accepted that this spectacular object served as a throne for the Pomare dynasty, the kings of Tahiti. It is even said that the last prince, Pomare V, died on it in 1916. This is in any case the legend retained by the Galerie Vauclair, an antique dealer specializing in rattan objects. The gallery is honoring the seat on the occasion of the next Saint-Ouen flea market. We have been collecting it for a long timeconfides Laurence Vauclair, the founder of the place. NWe bought the copy of the actress and writer Simone Signoret. All generations love this chair: it makes you look beautiful, it is very comfortable and it is just as good for indoors as it is for outdoors. »
A Symbol of Black Power
The Vauclair Gallery lent the copy exhibited from October 15 to the Musée des Arts décoratifs in Paris, as part of its exhibition “Intimacy, from the bedroom to social networks”. The MAD explores the evolution of the bedroom, of the toilet, of the border between private and public.
Christine Macel, Director of the Musées des Arts Décoratifs and general curator of the exhibition, highlights another origin. The peacock chair can be found in the 19th century, under the awnings of colonial houses in the southern United States. Later, African-Americans made it a symbol of “black power”. One of the founders of the Black Panther movement, Huey P. Newton, sits enthroned on it, brandishing a spear and a rifle as a scepter and sword.
Huey Newton, leader of the Black Panther Party, posing on the famous rattan chair, in the lens of Blair Stapp in 1967.
At the same time, in the 1960s, The peacock-tail curve of this handcrafted chair makes the perfect photo frame for a beautiful portrait: the Kennedy family and Michelle Obama, who posed on it at her graduation party, immortalized it in the 1960s. As did Elizabeth Taylor, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Diana Ross and, more recently, Beyonce, on stage during her Formation World Tour in 2016.
« This inversion is funny. symbolism: we move from a political emblem to an erotic object “, notes the curator. Soul and disco divas have indeed re-appropriated the object. ” I don’t understand the connection with the Polynesian throne. There’s a piece of history missing, ” asks Christine Macel. Who will find the missing link?
> Retrospective at the Galerie Vauclair from September 26 at the Marché Paul Bert, 96 rue des Rosiers, Saint-Ouen, aisle 6, stand 79.
> Exhibition “Intimacy, from the bedroom to social networks” at Museum of Decorative Arts in Parisfrom October 15, 2024 to March 30, 2025.
> “Emmanuelle” by Audrey Diwan, in theaters September 25, 2024.
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