A multidisciplinary artist and a major figure of Art Deco, Jean Dunand was interested in the different artistic currents of his time, and in very diverse fields such as clothing fashion (Paul Poiret, Madeleine Vionnet and Jean-Philippe Worth were among his clients), interior decoration, furniture (Jacques-Émile Ruhlmann, with whom he collaborated), design, and goldsmithing.

Well beyond his initial training as a sculptor, Jean Dunand became a renowned master coppersmith and one of the Western masters of the art of lacquer (with, notably, Eileen Gray). In addition to the disciplines for which he was renowned, he was also talented in the arts of mosaic, champlevé and cloisonné enamels, chasing and inlaying.

During his long artistic career, Jean Dunand adopted several decorative styles: "The decorations, of an infinite variety, are sometimes geometric, cubist, but full of originality and invention, sometimes naturalist. He drew many of them himself. Others are provided to him by painters friends such as Jean Lambert-Rucki and Jean Goulden. "

Jean Dunand was also a great draughtsman, as shown for example by the many portraits he made for personalities of the time, using various techniques (lacquer of course, but also pencil, charcoal, gouache, mosaic).