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Greek-style side chair
On View In:
Gallery 333
Artist:   Edward William Godwin
Wm Watt Artistic Furniture Warehouse  
Title:   Greek-style side chair  
Date:   c. 1885  
Medium:   Walnut and reproduction silk upholstery  
Dimensions:   40 1/2 x 16 3/4 x 19 1/2 in. (102.87 x 42.55 x 49.53 cm)  
Credit Line:   The Ulrich Acquisition Fund for Modern Design  
Location:   Gallery 333  

This chair is known as a "Greek" chair because the legs are similar to those on Greek thrones and stools, which Godwin sketched from the Elgin marbles in the British Museum. The design is advanced for its time. The lack of superficial ornament and overall angularity were inspiration to the modern design movement. Though Godwin was not the only designer to develop a vocabulary using the slant back (Christopher Dresser incorporated one into a chair design during the same period), the chair provides a dramatic visual continuum from Godwin to other designers, like Frank Lloyd Wright and Gerrit Rietveld.

Artist/Creator(s)     
Name:   Godwin, Edward William  
Role:   Designer  
Nationality:   English  
Life Dates:   English, 1833-1886  
 
Name:   Wm Watt Artistic Furniture Warehouse  
Role:   Maker  
Life Dates:   London  
 

Object Description  
  
Inscriptions:   Label '[top 1/3 missing] HEIRLOOM/[drawing of spider web]/10&12 GRAFTON STREET/GOWER ST/LONDON, W.C.', on  
Classification:   Furniture  
Physical Description:   tall, square-section uprights with tapering cylindrical finials; wedge-shaped back cushion at center of back; upholstered in black  
Creation Place:   Europe, England, , , London  
Accession #:   2000.43a,b  
Owner:   The Minneapolis Institute of Arts  

 


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