Art Institute of Chicago

Dining Chair

Theophil Hansen

Date

c. 1870

Medium

Walnut and beech with modern velvet upholstery

Culture

Austria

Department

Applied Arts of Europe

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

While architect and interior designer Theophil Hansen incorporated classical elements into his furniture designs, he also embraced contemporary advances in manufacturing, including the use of steam to bend solid and laminated wood, as seen in the curved forms of this chair’s back. Laminated bentwood furniture is most closely associated with the Viennese firm Gebrüder Thonet, the first manufacturers to produce bentwood on an industrial scale. When Thonet’s patent expired in 1869, however, others such as Hansen and Jacob and Josef Kohn were able to experiment with new designs using the technique.

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