Images(3)

Side Chair

Date1815-1820

OriginAmerica, New York

MediumHard maple, beech, tulip poplar, possibly birch and hickory, rush, paint, and gilt

DimensionsOverall: 32 1/2 x 18 7/8 x 20in. (82.6 x 47.9 x 50.8cm)

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1974.2000.1,2

DescriptionSide chair with rush seat and painted decoration, one of a set of six. The background color of the chair is dark olive, originally medium blue/green. Front legs are turned canting outwards slightly at the ankles, with button feet, turnings are highlighted with gold paint and yellow pinstriping. Front stretcher is flat, decorated with a stylized foliate design in gold paint in an oblong shaped panel outlined with yellow pinstriping. The same design is repeated on the flat band encircling the balloon seat which is covered in tightly woven rushes which have been painted. The exposed front corner bloacks of the seat is outlined with yellow pinstriping. Back stiles on posts are shaped in side profile in the "Greek" manner; front facets asre fairly widely outlined in gold paint. The medial rail of the chair back is pierced around a pair of dolphins flanking a central shell. The crest rail is made up of a panel with a painted landscape scene of a ship foundering in a raging storm at sea. A small life boat is reaching out to the ship, while figures on the nearby shore are frantically running about. A lighthouse is glimpsed on the far shore.
Label TextThis is one from a set of six decorated chairs. The landscape designs on their backs appear to be imaginary scenes which relate in style and composition to those found in drawing books popular at the time. ruins, pseudo-gothic architecture, "rustic" cottages, and stylized rockwork, basic ingredients in copybook exercises, were based on the formal art of the period.

The dolphins and shell on the center back support and the elongated anthemia on the chair seat and front stretcher are classical decorations widely used during the period.