Chest for Photographs
Josef Hoffmann
1897–1907
- Medium
- Wood with palisander and maple veneers, nickel silver
- Dimensions
- 55.9 × 52.8 × 37.1 cm (22 × 20 13/16 × 14 5/8 in.)
- Genre
- case furniture
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago
Tags
chest (case furniture)european decorative artshardwoodmapleFurniturewood (plant material)case furniture
About
This chest for photographs was included in the Vienna Seccession’s installation at the 1902 Exhibition of Art and Industry installation in the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Düsseldorf, Germany. It embodies Josef Hoffmann’s ideas of furniture design prior to his involvement with the founding of the Wiener Werkstätte in 1903. Conceived as a piece of miniature architecture, the chest combines the sinuous curves of turn-of-the-century Art Nouveau with the sturdiness and simplicity of late 19th-century English Arts and Crafts furniture.
