Skip to Content
Today Open today 11–8

Chair

A work made of walnut and modern replacement upholstery.
CC0 Public Domain Designation

Image actions

  • A work made of walnut and modern replacement upholstery.

Date:

1815/20

Artist:

Vienna, Austria

About this artwork

This chair is an elegant example of the style of furniture made during the quarter century following the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815. During this period it was thought that a citizen’s principal duty was to live a quiet life: the home became a sanctuary where domestic values and family-centered activities were elevated and cherished. These virtues were exemplified in the popular press by a comic fictional character whose name, Biedermeier, eventually came to identify the period and its art. Biedermeier style began in courtly and aristocratic circles before becoming popular with the newly prosperous middle classes.

Made in Vienna of native walnut, this side chair was designed to be comfortable, durable, easily portable, and adaptable to a variety of uses. Designated design no. 89 in the archives of Joseph Danhauser’s factory, Vienna’s most famous and prolific furniture and furnishings factory of the era, it is an exercise in spare, flattened, curvilinear shapes. A booming market in furniture making called for greater creativity from designers and allowed customers greater choice: someone purchasing a side chair from Danhauser’s factory had a choice of 153 different versions.

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Applied Arts of Europe

Artist

Unknown

Title

Chair

Place

Vienna (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.

1815–1820

Medium

Walnut and modern replacement upholstery

Dimensions

93.7 × 48.3 × 50.2 cm (36 7/8 × 19 × 19 3/4 in.)

Credit Line

Gift of the Antiquarian Society from the Capital Campaign Fund

Reference Number

1987.215.4

IIIF Manifest  The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.

https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/69843/manifest.json

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.

Share

Sign up for our enewsletter to receive updates.

Learn more

Image actions

Share