“Compact Sofa” Ray & Charles Eames Godparents Gift to Eric Saarinen, Original

The compact sofa provides ample sitting room as well as an elegant and simple design statement. At 6 feet long, the Eames Compact Sofa can accommodate three adults comfortably and is scaled perfectly for spaces seeking an airy, clean look. The two foam pads on the back are a sleek 2.5″ thick yet provides excellent comfort. The Compact Sofa has a depth of only 2 1/2 feet from the back of a wall. The sofa has a slim profile, concealed reinforced webbing for support, an enamel steel frame, and tubular steel legs.

Charles remained in his hometown of St. Louis until late 1938. In Missouri, he studied architecture at Washington University (he never finished the program because of his too-progressive ideologies), practiced architecture in a partnership with Robert Walsh, and was married with a newborn daughter. With Walsh, Charles built two churches in Arkansas and four homes in the St. Louis area. Esteemed architect Eliel Saarinen took note of Charles’s work and invited him to complete a fellowship at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. Quickly, this fellowship turned Charles into the school’s first director of the industrial design program. After a short time at Cranbrook, Charles became fast friends with Eero Saarinen and other budding architects and designers, plus, his marriage began to dissolve.

Ray held an early interest in fashion design, theatre, and the arts, and left her hometown of Sacramento for New York to attend the Bennett School for Girls. In 1933, Ray moved to Manhattan. Although she entertained the idea of studying engineering in the city, she remained enamored by the many media of art and its social circles. Ray enrolled in Hans Hofmann’s painting school, taking courses with him for six years from 1933 until 1939, and became a founding member of the American Abstract Artists group. When Ray’s mother fell ill, she cared for her in Florida. During this time away from the easel and New York City, Ray applied to Cranbrook in an effort to expand upon her artistic language.

Ray & Charles Eames are two of the many well-known artists who attended The Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, that was designed by architect and faculty member, Eliel Saarinen, whose son, Eero who collaborated with Charles and Ray Eames on chair and furniture design. It is the country’s top ranked, graduate-only program in architecture, design and fine art. Each year, just 75 students are invited to study and live on the landmark Saarinen-designed campus which features: private studios, state-of-the art workshops, the renowned Cranbrook Art Museum and 300 acres of forests, lakes and streams, all a short drive from the city of Detroit. The focus at Cranbrook is on studio practice in one of ten disciplines including Architecture, 2D and 3D Design, Ceramics, Fiber, Metalsmithing, Painting, Photography, Print Media, and Sculpture. The program is anchored by celebrated Artists- and Designers-in-Residence, one for each discipline, all of whom live and practice on campus alongside the graduate students.

Numerous creative artists who are alumni of Cranbrook include: Harry Bertoia, Florence Knoll, Jack Lenor Larsen, Donald Lipski, Duane Hanson, Nick Cave, Hani Rashid, George Nelson, Urban Jupena (Nationally recognized fiber artist), Artis Lane (the first African-American artist to have her sculpture, “Sojourner Truth,” commissioned for the Emancipation Hall in the Capital Visitor Center in Washington DC), Cory Puhlman (televised Pastry Chef extraordinaire), Thom O’Connor (Lithographs), Paul Evans (Brutalist-inspired sculpted metal furnishings), Eugene Caples (small bronze images/abstract), Morris Brose (Bronze Sculptures), Herb Babcock (blown glass), Larry Butcher (mixed media), Lauren Anais Hussey (Abstract), Andrea Eis (film, photography), Lilian Swann Saarinen (Sculpture), Douglas Semivan (printmaker and sculptor), Sonya Clark (assemblage/fiber art), and Moon-Joo Lee (large acrylic paintings).