Colette Gueden (1905-2000)
The name and work of Colette Gueden are closely associated with Primavera, the art workshop of the Printemps department stores in Paris, founded in 1912 by Pierre Laguionie, manager of the department stores, and the lawyer René Guilleré, founder of the Company Decorative artists.

Born in 1905 in Indochina, Colette Gueden entered the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Saint-Etienne where she graduated three years later. In 1927 in Paris, she worked as a designer at Primavera alongside Claude Lévy, Gisèle Favre, Madeleine Sougez. She became manager in 1934, then director in 1938. Under his direction, Primavera supplied carpets, furnishing fabrics, trendy wallpapers, and specialized in ceramic objects: vases, trinkets, figurines ... adventure ends in 1972, after sixty years of creations that have become synonymous with inventiveness and fantasy.