Art Institute of Chicago

Side Chair

Artist unknown (American, 18th century)LinkedCulture matchlcp-720adf61c688

Date: 1742–90
Medium: Mahogany, white oak, white pine, and beech
Culture: New York
Department: Arts of the Americas
Institution: Art Institute of Chicago
Object ID: 35702

From the Art Institute of Chicago record

This chair is from a set made to commemorate either the marriage of Judge Robert Livingston and his wife Margaret, in 1742, or that of their son Robert and his wife Mary, in 1770. The “RML” cipher-pierced back splat is unique in American chair design of this period. The contrast of the high-style Chippendale design with the crude craftsmanship of the carvings suggests that the chair was worked on by several hands or that it was made by a country craftsman unfamiliar with practices of the more sophisticated port cities. The powerful Livingston family controlled a large estate near Albany as well as land in New York City.

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Provenance & credit

As published by the source institution. Coverage varies — not every institution's open-data feed includes ownership history.

Credit line: Richard T. Crane Jr. Memorial Fund
Provenance: Robert and Margaret (Beekman) Livingston, New York, from about 1750; by descent to Mrs. Wainwright, York Harbor, ME, to 1951; Roger J. Bacon, from 1951; with John Walton, New York, to 1971; sold to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1971.