Have you ever taken the train? Last year while traveling in Russia I boarded the Nicholas I late one night in Moscow for the overnight trip to St. Petersburg. As the train moved out of the station the city lights began flashing past the curtained window of my cabin. A series of staccato images rolled past my window until I fell asleep. When I woke the series continued. Fast flashes. Each peek offering a glimpse of the world beyond. I think it is the concept of the glimpse that interests me today. In reading James Archer Abbott’s book Jansen I found the glimpse concept again of great interest. This book chronicles the 20th century’s most famous and influential interior decorating house and provides a peek into the world’s most spectacular design commissions. Founded in Paris by Jean-Henri Jansen in 1880 the firm eventually occupied offices and boutiques in New York, London, Cairo, Alexandria, Buenos Aires, Havana, Prague, Sao Paolo, Rome, Milan and Geneva.
With photos and stories which illustrate the consistent and committed “modern” aesthetic which this firm used in all their projects it also illustrates its renowned adaptation of an 18th century neoclassical style. It is an education as well as a thrilling experience to glimpse into the rarified world designed by Jansen.
