Serge Mouille

Serge Mouille was born in December 1922 in Paris. His fascination with nature was sparked on his grandparents' farm, and he often visited the Jardin des Plantes in Paris. He spent countless hours drawing plants and animals. These details, such as the network of veins in a leaf, the way shells grow, the joints and the anatomy of animal skeletons that he observed then, later became the hallmark of his works. At the suggestion of his drawing teacher, Serge Mouille signed up for the entrance examination at the School of Applied Arts in Paris, where he became the youngest student. He studied metallurgy and goldsmithing, and after graduating in 1941, he started working in his own workshop. At the age of 22, he became a teacher at the School of Applied Arts and opened a metalworking workshop. His design commissions mainly concerned handrails, chandeliers and wall sconces. In 1953, Jacques Adnet hired him to design lighting fixtures. Mouille then created large, angular, insect-like wall and floor lamps with several arms, and smaller and more curved wall sconces. He worked to achieve a kinetic, sculptural aesthetic that would create a sense of movement in space. His designs from this period were shown at the Steph Simon gallery in Paris. In 1955 he became a member of the Society of Decorators and the French National Society of Art. In the same year, he was honored with the Charles Plumet Award for his work, and in 1958 he received an Honorary Diploma at the Expo in Brussels. At the end of the decade, Mouille began designing institutional lighting, lighting for the University of Antony, for schools in Strasbourg and Marseille, and for the cathedral in Bizerte. Also in the late 1950s, the invention of neon fluorescent lamps inspired Mouille to create a series of floor lamps that combined incandescent and fluorescent lamps. In 1962, Mouille stopped producing lighting fixtures to teach at l'École des Arts Appliqués. He died in 1988, on his 66th birthday. In 1999, Gin Mouille and Claude Delpiroux ventured to produce lamps according to the designs of Serge Mouille, using all the original dimensions and materials, and with the valuable help of Fred Barnley, one of Mouille's first students. In 2000, Gin Mouille signed the first Certificate of Origin for Les Editions de Serge Mouille, assuring customers that they were purchasing a work of art made according to exactly the same philosophy by which Serge Mouille designed it. Gin remained a signatory until 2009. From 2009 to 2016, Claude Delpiroux was the signatory of all certificates of origin for Les Editions de Serge Mouille, and in 2016 this role was taken over by his son Didier Delpiroux. Currently, approximately 1,500 lamps are produced annually and distributed around the world.