Maggy Rouff

Key facts

Lived

1896–1971, French

Movement

• Art Deco

• What is Maggy Rouff known for?+

  Maggy Rouff is known for tailored sportswear and lingerie. Through the 1930s, her house developed a reputation for ruffles, draping, and bias-cut evening gowns.
• What style or movement did Maggy Rouff belong to?+

  Maggy Rouff was part of the Art Deco movement. This style emerged in the 1920s, following the First World War. Originally called Style Moderne, Art Deco influenced many creative fields, such as fashion and architecture. Its influences included Cubism, Fauvism, and art from India and the Far East. The discovery of Tutankhamen’s tomb in 1922 increased public interest in ancient Egypt, adding another element to the style. Art Deco celebrated the modern, mechanised world through architecture, design and fine art. It was an international style that started in Paris and is named after the International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts held there in 1925. The movement's streamlined works symbolised wealth and sophistication. Art Deco fashion is characterised by simple lines, stylised natural motifs, Cubistic patterns and futuristic streamlining of form.
• What techniques or materials did Maggy Rouff use?+

  Before 1800, French publications on painting techniques included artists' treatises, books of secrets, articles from journals, dictionaries, and encyclopaedias. Traditional painting methods included oil painting, fresco, miniature, and *détrempe* (water-based media such as glue, gum, or egg tempera), as well as enamel, glass, and porcelain painting. Some more unusual techniques outlined are encaustic, eludoric, and glass painting, including glass transfer techniques. Jean-André Rouquet offered a satirical contribution, *L'art de la peinture en fromage ou en ramequin* (the art of painting in cheese). Claude Boutet's treatise on miniature painting, published in 1672, was called an "ABC de La mignature". De La Fontaine's *Academie de La peinture* (Paris, 1679) summarises practical detail, especially on pigment mixtures, mentioning *détrempe*, fresco, pastel, *grisaille*, miniature, and oil painting.
• When did Maggy Rouff live and work?+

  Unfortunately, the provided texts do not contain information about Maggy Rouff. However, one passage mentions a sculpture called *Maggy*, created by Raymond Duchamp-Villon. The sculpture is a bronze head of Maggy, the wife of Surrealist poet and painter Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes. Duchamp-Villon met Ribemont-Dessaignes around 1909, and the sculpture emphasises Maggy's features in a caricatured style. Duchamp-Villon signed and dated the work on the left shoulder as 'Duchamp-Villon / 1911'. The plaster head of Maggy is dated 1912, as it was exhibited in 1914 at the Galerie Andre Groult in Paris. Raymond Duchamp-Villon was born in Damville, near Rouen, on 5 November 1876, and he died on 9 October 1918 in a military hospital at Cannes.
• Where can I see Maggy Rouff's work?+

  Maggy Rouff's creations, aligned with the Art Deco movement, can be viewed in several museums. In the United States, these include the Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art (Winter Park, Florida), the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York), the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, the Museum of Modern Art (New York), the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (Richmond), and the Wolfsonian at Florida International University (Miami Beach). In Canada, Rouff's work can be seen at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto. In the United Kingdom, museums include the Bakelite Museum (Williton), the Brighton Museum & Art Gallery, the Geffrye Museum (London), the Manchester Art Gallery, the National Museums of Scotland (Edinburgh), and the Victoria & Albert Museum (London). In Europe, see the Musée des Arts Décoratifs (Paris), the Musée de l’Ecole de Nancy, and the Musée des Beaux-Arts (Nancy).
• Where was Maggy Rouff from?+

  The sculptor Raymond Duchamp-Villon created a bronze bust, titled *Tête de Maggy* (1912), of a woman named Maggy. She was married to Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes, a Surrealist poet and painter. Ribemont-Dessaignes apparently met Duchamp-Villon around 1909; he became a regular visitor to the artist's home in Puteaux. Duchamp-Villon was born Pierre-Maurice-Raymond Duchamp in Damville, near Rouen, on 5 November 1876. He began studying medicine at the University of Paris in 1894, but illness forced him to abandon his studies. He decided to pursue sculpture instead. Around the start of the century, he moved to Paris. He exhibited at the Salon de la Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts in 1902. In 1903, he settled in Neuilly-sur-Seine. Duchamp-Villon died on 9 October 1918, in a military hospital at Cannes.
• Who did Maggy Rouff influence?+

  Maggy Rouff (1896-1971) was a French fashion designer, who took over her mother's couture house, Maison Besson, in 1929. She renamed it Maggy Rouff. The firm operated until 1965. Rouff's influence is discernible in the work of designers who apprenticed or worked at her house. These included Anne-Marie Beretta, who started at Maggy Rouff in 1956. Beretta later designed for Pierre d'Alby, Scherrer, and Max Mara. Laura Biagiotti, the Italian designer, also worked at Maggy Rouff early in her career. Additionally, Rouff mentored young designers through competitions. One such designer was Emmanuelle Khanh, who won the 1952 "Young Creators" competition organised by Elle magazine, with Rouff as one of the judges. Khanh's later work showed a modern, youthful aesthetic, diverging from Rouff's more established style. However, Rouff's support provided an early platform for Khanh's career. By providing opportunities and training, Rouff aided the careers of several important figures in the fashion world.
• Who influenced Maggy Rouff?+

  Germaine Maggy Besnard (1887-1971), known as Maggy Rouff, directed the Rouff fashion house after her father's death in 1930. The house had been founded in 1916 by her parents, Juliette and Pierre Rouff (1845-1938). While sources do not discuss specific artistic influences on Rouff's designs, some context can be inferred from her background and the general artistic environment of Paris at the time. Her father, Pierre Rouff, had previously been a manager at the Drecoll fashion house. Drecoll was known for its close relationship with theatrical costume design; this connection may have shaped the Rouff house's aesthetic from its beginning. The Rouff fashion house operated during a period of significant change in fashion and art. The rise of modernism, with its emphasis on simplicity and functionality, influenced many designers. Similarly, the artistic movements of the early 20th century, such as Art Deco and Surrealism, impacted fashion through their motifs and approaches to form. It is reasonable to assume that Rouff, as a designer working in Paris during this period, absorbed some of these wider artistic trends.
• Who was Maggy Rouff?+

  The reference passages provided do not contain information about Maggy Rouff. They refer instead to Marie Mauron, a celebrated teller of Provençal tales, who, with her husband Charles, spoke, wrote, and published in Provençal. Charles Mauron was a research chemist who went blind after a chemical explosion in 1924-1925. By 1942, he could no longer see. Charles translated E.M. Forster's *A Passage to India* in 1925. Forster did not meet Mauron until 1927. Charles later translated a number of Forster’s other works, and Forster frequently visited the Maurons. Roger Fry once asked Marie Mauron to translate his early articles, but her English was not up to the task; Charles Mauron translated Fry’s work, and vice versa. During World War II, Charles maintained links with the partisans via radio and worked with the Comité de Vigilance des Intellectuels Français as Pierre Jérôme. He also developed psychocriticism, the school he founded.
• Why are Maggy Rouff's works important today?+

  Maggy Rouff's importance lies in her intersection with the Surrealist movement, particularly in Paris during the 1930s. As a physician and hand-reading expert, Rouff, also known as Dr. Charlotte Wolff, contributed an article titled “The Psychic Revelations of the Hand” to the journal *Minotaure* in 1935. This article analysed the hands of prominent artists and writers, including André Breton, Paul Éluard, and Marcel Duchamp. Rouff's work appealed to the Surrealists because it mirrored their interest in psychoanalysis, the occult, and expanding the investigation of human nature beyond scientific constraints. Her approach, while rooted in medical and psychoanalytic theories, incorporated elements of traditional palmistry, further blurring the lines between science and psychic insight. Her association with Surrealism, though brief, elevated her to the role of seer, adding chirology to the occult disciplines explored by the movement. This connection is a valuable case study for understanding the complex relationship between science, esotericism, and artistic expression in the Surrealist milieu.
• What was Maggy Rouff's art style?+

  The fashion illustrations and graphic work associated with Maggy Rouff reflect the Art Deco sensibility of interwar Paris.