Chanel came upon Chinese Coromandel screens in the early 20th century with her lover, Boy Capel. They conjured up sailing ships, palaces, flowers and birds, intertwined in dramatic gold, carmine and black tones. The designer selected a few of the lacquered enamel boards to line the walls of her Avenue de New-York mansion, others to decorate the Rue Cambon apartment in 1923; to furnish her suite at the Ritz, Paris; and her villa in Lausanne in 1968.
Coromandel screens in Mademoiselle Chanel’s apartment, 31 rue Cambon, Paris. Images courtesy of Chanel
The Coromandel screens became Chanel’s portable interior-design device – the designer shipped them from one space to the next and, using them as mood boards, could ’cut, stick, detach, reduce, and transform them’ according to her preference. ’When I look at this screen in the evening, I see doors opening and knights setting off on horseback,’ Chanel mused, displaying her true-collector’s passion
Chanel used the Coromandel screens as a creative device, pinning photographs and drawings on them, given to her by artist friends. They became the designer’s travelling moodboards. She owned more than 30 at one point, giving some away, while keeping a few favourites to ’upholster my home’
’I’m like a snail,’ Chanel confided to a friend. ’I carry my house with me…two Chinese screens, books everywhere. I’ve never been able to live in an open house. The first thing I look for is screens.’
The richly lacquered Chinese panels were typically decorated with romantic, fabled images of China’s Imperial cities and the Coromandel Coast of East India — from where the screens were traditionally shipped from Europe — and which gave them their exotic name