Pair of Sido and François Thevenin Bar Stools, circa 1970, France

Pair of Sido and François Thevenin bar stool. Made with forged iron and leather. Stamped in the back. Circa 1970, France. Very good vintage condition. Born on the Côte d’Azur in 1931, François Thévenin was an artist, architect, sculptor, designer and potter. After training at the Beaux-Arts in Paris in the 1950s, where he met his future wife Gisèle Sidoti, known as Sido, they moved to the South of France, where the couple befriended and worked with the architect, Jacques Couëlle. The furniture of François and Sido are fine examples of slightly off centre mid-century modern that also harks back, in a slightly abstract way, to the Art-Deco style of the 1920s and 1930s. A curious Pablo Picasso first visited their home and studio-workshop in the early 1960s to see their celebrated work. He was impressed and they became firm friends. Sido died in 1986. Throughout the 1990s, François continued the work begun with Jacques Couëlle and, in collaboration with Savin Couëlle (Jacques’ son), helped create new “landscape houses” in New Zealand, Sardinia and France. François died in 2016.