Early Modern Designs in Furniture, Eugene Schone

Monumental Desk by Eugene Schoen at Donzella

Born in 1880 in New York , Eugene Schoen, studied architecture at Columbia University and graduated in 1901. He traveled to Europe and studied architecture with Otto Wagner and Josef Hoffman.  He attended the Paris Exhibition des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes in 1925.  Greatly influenced by what he had seen he started designing furniture after the French avant-garde style he had seen there. He opened an interior decorating business and designed the furniture himself. He was able to combine the new materials that were coming into the market place with the more traditional materials and woods used in Art Decco Designs.

Designing and selling furniture during the Great Depression was not an easy task.  He was able to display his furniture in his own shop. Schoen exhibited furniture at the Pennsylvania Museum of Fine Arts and participated in two exhibits of industrial design at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  This helped get him through the depression era.  In 1931, Schoen became professor of  Interior Architecture at NYU.

He designed furniture for Schmieg & Kotzian, Inc., Designers and Cabinet Makers, 521 East 72nd Street, New York along with Paul Frankl.

Schoen recieved the Gold Medal Award of the Architectural League of Crafts.  His designs led the way for other modern furniture designers.

Etagere by Eugene Schoen Metropolitan Museum of Art