History of the Chair
1. Louis XIV Baroque
France, 1643 - 1715
Louis the 14th, aka Louis the Great, ruled France for 72 years, 110 days. Louis was a great patron of the arts. He supported artists and craftsmen. It was he who increased a hunting lodge built by Louis XIII into the magnificent Palaceof Versailles. Furniture from this era is marked by heavy, masculine forms, opulence and great volume. Chairs were formed with curved or turned legs, straight backs, fixed upholstery in tapestry, brocade or velvet and had carvings of mythology and acanthus leaf.
2. LOUIS XV - Rococo
France, 1723 - 1774
The heavy, masculine furniture of the Baroque era gave way to the lighter, more feminine Rococo era. Stretchers were removed from chair designs. The curved cabriole leg and scroll foot were used at length. Common back styles included round, crossbow, central indentation and double indentation. In keeping with the elegant lines of the era; shell, flower and plant decorations were used as well as C scrolls and S scrolls.
3. LOUIS XVI - Neoclassical
France, 1774-1792
Inspiration for the Neoclassical era came from the discoveries at Pompeii andHerculaneum. Marie Antoinette was the wife of Louis the 16th and had great influence on furniture at this time, having had smaller pieces designed for her rooms at Versailles. Greek influence meant a turn from feminine curves to straight, angular lines. Chair design was restrained: seat backs were medallion/oval shapes/square-backed fauteuil. Fluted legs, carved friezes, the Greek band, oak and laurel leaf dominated the designs.
4. Victorian
England USA, Australia 1837-1901
The Victorian era was a time of great change. The design world exploded with all sorts of products based on cultural influences and new technologies. One chair that rose from this time is the
Bentwood chair. Its shape borrowed from the natural world that influenced design of this era; its construction owed to the advancement in technology. Thonet’s No. 14 was made up of six pieces of steam-bent wood, ten screws and two nuts. The Bentwood, or cafe chair, was the start of mass-produced chairs.
5. Arts & Crafts
1860-1910
The Arts & Crafts era was a backlash response to the Victorian era and the Industrial Revolution. Mass production was putting the remaining artisans out of business. Arts & Crafts could be best described as handmade items inspired by nature. William Morris was the artist and writer who founded the style. Perhaps the most iconic piece and copied of Arts & Crafts movement is the Morris chair. The design features a reclining back and high, un-upholstered arms. The seat back and seat have unattached cushions.
6. Art Nouveau
1890-1910
Art Nouveau rose out of France at the end of the 19th century. It is a decorative style; inspired by nature and characterized by swooping curves, stylized organic forms, dreaming women with long hair. Art Nouveau furniture was slimmer and lighter than its Arts & Crafts cousin. It was made of sleek wood, and often detailed the sweeping lines of plant stems and grasses reminiscent of the Art
Nouveau artwork.
7. Art Deco
1910-1930s
Art Deco can be found in the golden period between the two World Wars. Travel was on the rise and was a strong influence on design. Art Deco's strong geometric forms most often looked likethey were going somewhere. This is representative in the Wassily chair by Marcel Breuer at Bauhaus. The triangular seat and square frame give motion to the shape. (This chair was inspired by the seamless tubular steel of Breuer's bike, and was originally held together with canvas straps; later replaced with leather.
8. Marcel Breuer
1928
B32
Hungarian-born Marcel Breuer was trained in Bauhaus techniques. Breuer worked with tubular steel in furniture design. The B2 chair, or Cesca side chair, is a iconic example of his work with tubular steel and cantilever mechanisms. These technologies allowed him to push the boundaries of chair design; negating the need for 4 legs and allowing for a modern, clean line in chair design.
9. Le Corbusier
1928
Chaise Longue LC4
Le Corbusier was a Swiss/French architect, painter, designer, urbanist writer whose career spanned five decades to 1965. He is considered one of the pioneers of modern architecture. His Chaise Longue LC4 chair is modern ode to the daybed of the 18th century. It consists of a steel-coated base, curved frame with a padded leather mat and headrest. The adjustable frame allows the occupant to move from an upright position to a reclining position.
10. Mies Van Der Rohe
1929
Barcelona Chair
Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe was a German-American architect. Along with Le Corbusier, and others, he also pioneered modern architecture. He designed the Barcelona Chair along with Lilly Reich for the International Exposition in Barcelona. With its steel frame and sloping tufted seat, it remains a modern design classic to this day. The original chairs had reflective chrome legs and ivory pigskin cushions, but was later redesigned with a stainless steel frame and bovine leather cushions.
11. Charles & Ray Eames
1950
DSX Dining Chair
Charles and Ray Eames were a husband and wife design team. They initially designed using molded plywood, but moved on to pioneering technologies with fibreglass and plastic resin. The Eames' were interested in creating high-quality, low-cost mass marketed chairs. The DSX Dining Chair was a molded plastic side chair; a runaway success which remains popular as a dining chair to this day.
12. Eero Saarinen
1955-6
Tulip Chair
Eero Saarinen was a Finnish-American architect and industrial designer. He was a close friend and partner of the Eames'. His Tulip chair is an iconic, futuristic piece. It is also molded to the human form; a simple tulip shape belying a more complex construction of fibreglass, aluminum and plastic. Saarinen wanted to create a clean, classic piece; a chair without four legs as he thought the legs to break up the clean sightline of modern design.
13. Arne Jacobsen
1958
Swan Chair (Egg chair/Swan sofa related)
Arne Jacobsen was a Danish architect and designer. His designs are simple, classic and elegant. This is evident in the Swan chair, which he designed in 1958 for theRadisson SAS Royal Hotel in Copenhagen. With organic, sweeping curves creating the armrests and the back; no straight lines were used in this chair design. The chair's shell is made of a molded synthetic material covered by a layer of cold foam, and sits on an exposed satin- polished aluminium base.
14. Verner Panton
1968
Panton stacking chair
Verner Panton was a Danish furniture and interior designer. He envisaged a chair without legs! With advancement in plastics, his design idea was brought to fruition. The curved, cantilevered chair made from one continuous piece of plastic caused a sensation when it made its first appearance in the Danish magazine, Mobilla. The materials of the chair have gone through several formulations to reach the current sleek design of rigid expanded polypropylene with a lacquered surface.
15. Marc Newson
1986
Lockheed Lounge
Marc Newson is an Australian industrial designer with international recognition. He practices biomorphism design; which is to take naturally occurring shapes and push them to their limits. The Lockheed Lounge echoes the daybed of the 18th century, and even Le Corbusier's Chaise Longue LC4. The lounge looks like a cross between a blob of mercury and the body of an aircraft. Following its appearance in Madonna's video, Rain, the aluminium chair became a collector item.
16. Philippe Starck
2003
Ghost chair
Philippe Starck is a French product designer. With his Ghost chair, the design has come full circle back to the Louis chairs of the French monarchies. While the shape is decidedly 18th century, th technology is definitely 21st century. The Neo-Classical chair shape is constructed in clear plastic; a ghost of the royal courts of a long extinct French monarchy.
