Pierre-Henri Beyssac discovered wood through his family heritage and by chance during his educational travels. After graduating at the top of his class with a DMA from the École Boulle, he moved to Italy to study at the European Centre for Restoration in Florence. Then, while on assignment in Réunion, he set up the IRMA marquetry workshop. Back in mainland France, he joined the Spindler workshop near Strasbourg. He learned new techniques and explored his craft through new, more contemporary subjects. After returning to Paris to teach marquetry at the École Boulle for five years, he decided to move back to the countryside to relocate his workshop and devote himself to his craft.
Today, as a marquetry designer based between Drôme and Paris, he is constantly seeking new ideas. By questioning his expertise and confronting it with contemporary issues and other areas of knowledge, he explores the limits of marquetry in order to reinvent its forms and uses.
Sophie Mouquin received her doctorate in art history from the University of Paris-Sorbonne in 2003. She was appointed lecturer in modern art history at the University of Bordeaux (2004-2007), then at the University of Lille (since 2007) and Director of Studies at the École du Louvre (2011-2016). A specialist in decorative arts, decorative design and the history of taste in the 17th and 18th centuries, she is the author of several books and numerous articles and chapters in collective works. She is a member of the scientific committee of several journals and institutions, a member of the Selection and Vetting Committees of TEFAF, a qualified expert for the acquisition committee of museums with ‘national competence’ and for the acquisition committee of the Louvre Museum. She has received several awards: the Nicole Prize for her doctorate in 2004, the Focillon Scholarship (Yale University and the French Committee for the History of Art) in 2008, the SNA Art Book Prize in 2018, the Eugène Carrière Prize from the Académie Française and the Gobert Medal from the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres in 2019 for ‘Versailles in its marble, royal politics and the king's marble workers’.
