Jean Royère, who came from a wealthy background, is born in 1902 in Paris. After he studied law in Paris and in Cambridge, he came to work with his uncle in his export-import business in Le Havre.
However, in 1931, Royère chose to turn toward his real vocation : he became a decorator at the age of 29 and began to work in a furniture factory in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine, in Paris. Two years later, he was chosen to realize the bar of the Carlton, on the Champs-Elysées : thanks to the success of this set, Pierre Gouffé noticed the talent of Royère and hired him in his firm. Since this period, he often exhibited at the Salon d’automne, the Salon des artistes décorateurs and the Salon des arts ménagers.
In 1937, for the Exposition internationale des arts et techniques dans la vie moderne, 17 sets and interiors were commissioned to Royère for different pavilions – such as the pavilion of the artistes décorateurs, the pavilion of the Aluminium, the pavilion of the Ceramic, etc. – ; thanks to this exhibition, Royère was then considered as one of the most wanted and accomplished decorators of his time.
In 1942, Royère chose to left Gouffé’s firm to found his own, in the rue d’Argenson. Toward his Parisian success, he soon decided to open new galeries in Cairo (1946) and Beirut (1947), which allowed him to gain an international clientele who followed him until the end of his career, such as numerous sovereigns of the Middle-East, where he would realize a lot of interiors.
In the 1950’s, the influx of the orders made Royère open some more galeries in Lima (1955), Sao Paulo (1957) and Tehran (1958).
Royère ended his activity as a decorator in 1972, and then shared his time between France and the USA, where he lived permanently from 1980. He died at the age of 78 in 1980, in Pennsylvania.