« Rendre justice à ces serviteurs muets » : le cabinet de travail de Jean Zay au ministère de l’Éducation nationale

Abstract

Jean Zay (1904-1944) was the youngest minister of the Third French republic, Minister of National Education and the Fine Arts in the Popular Front government. The episode of the Vichy government cast Jean Zay’s career and personality into a sort of oblivion, from which he has recently been recovered. The rediscovery of his ‘cabinet de travail’, his office, at the Ministry of National Education, which he commissioned from Jean Pascaud in 1937, allows for a reconstruction of the décor, showing something of the minister’s taste and personality. The study of his unpublished archives and his daughters’ testimony have helped track down the various works of art he had chosen for his office, subsequently scattered through different collections.

Keywords

• furniture
• tapestry
• bas-relief
• Art Deco
• Jean Zay
• Jean Pascaud