Alexandre Charles Genaille (1884–1947) was a Parisian painter and designer who trained at the École Nationale des Arts Décoratifs. He was hired by Cartier Paris in 1906 and transferred to the New York branch in 1909, where he worked under Pierre Cartier until 1929.
At Cartier New York, Genaille eventually became a head of service. His work spanned the full range of the branch's output: jewellery, boxes, smoking accessories, desk objects, clocks, and silverware. His designs covered the transition from the garland-style aesthetic of the early twentieth century through the Art Deco period of the 1920s.
The New York branch under Pierre Cartier drew heavily on French-trained designers and craftsmen from the firm's atelier network, and Genaille was among the most senior of these, rising to Head of the Drawing Office.
Around 400 of his original drawings survive and are held by the libraries of the City of Paris, catalogued as Archives Alexandre Genaille: dessins originaux pour la maison Cartier. The collection covers designs produced between 1906 and 1929 and provides an unusually complete record of one designer's working practice across the garland and Art Deco periods.
After leaving Cartier in 1929, Genaille returned to France and continued as a painter, producing watercolours of French villages and landscapes.
Sources
- Francesca Cartier Brickell, The Cartiers (Ballantine Books, 2019)
- Bibliothèque historique de la Ville de Paris, Archives Alexandre Genaille: dessins originaux pour la maison Cartier (c.400 drawings, 1906–1929)
- Hans Nadelhoffer, Cartier: Jewelers Extraordinary (Thames and Hudson, 1984; revised 2007), pp. 28, 133 et al.
- Armand Guérinet (publisher), Documents Décoratifs: Pochoirs, Aquarelles Japonais -- publication featuring Genaille's decorative work
