Mathieu Matégot was born in Hungary in 1910. After studying at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, he got his start as a decorator at the national theater in Budapest. At the age of 19, he left to explore western Europe, settling in Paris. In 1931, he was hired by a furniture maker. During World War II he was a prisoner and worked in a factory, where he discovered the possibilities of sheet metal. In 1945, he opened a workshop in Paris, and spent fifteen years making small series of metal furniture, objects, and lights, often in the form of a type of perforated sheet metal patented under the name “Rigitulle”. He also used brass, Formica®, and wood. In 1959, he stopped making furniture to focus on interior decorating and painting cartoons for weaving. He passed away in 2001.