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Corner Cabinet

Oak cabinet black and white flower vase design on door.

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  • Oak cabinet black and white flower vase design on door.

Date:

c. 1916

Artist:

Designed by Jacques-Émile Ruhlmann
French, 1879-1933
Paris, France

About this artwork

This sumptuously veneered corner cabinet is arguably a signature piece of the Art Deco era. The term Art Deco, used since the 1960s to refer to the high-style interiors of the years between the two world wars, is derived from the title of the 1925 Paris International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts (Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes). This cabinet’s triangular form, with its serpentine door, is supported on short, fluted legs that are shod with ivory on the two front feet and terminate at the knees with a scroll flourish. Jacques-Émile Ruhlmann employed ebony and ivory to depict the large urn from which an abundance of stylized flowers and leaves cascades, overflowing the limits of the container to form a black-and-white oval that contrasts with the warm tone of the amboyna wood.

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Applied Arts of Europe

Artist

Jacques-Émile Ruhlmann

Title

Corner Cabinet

Place

France (Object made in)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

1911–1921

Medium

Oak, mahogany, amboyna, ebony, and ivory veneer

Dimensions

127.3 × 82.9 × 52.1 cm (50 1/8 × 32 5/8 × 20 1/2 in.)

Credit Line

Purchased with funds provided by Mrs. James W. Alsdorf, Mrs. T. Stanton Armour, Mrs. DeWitt W. Buchanan, Jr., Mrs. Henry M. Buchbinder, Quinn E. Delaney, Mrs. Harold T. Martin, Manfred Steinfeld, Mrs. Edgar J. Uihlein, Mrs. T. Stanton Armour, Mr. and Mrs. Robert O. Delaney, Kay and Frederick Krehbiel and Mrs. Eric Oldberg funds; Mrs. Pauline S. Armstrong, Harry and Maribel G. Blum, Richard T. Crane, Jr. Memorial, Kay and Frederick Krehbiel, Mary Waller Langhorne, and European Decorative Arts endowments; through prior acquisitions of The Antiquarian Society, European Decorative Arts Purchase Fund, Howard Van Doren Shaw and Mr. and Mrs. Martin A. Ryerson

Reference Number

1997.694

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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