Art Institute of Chicago

Sideboard

Herter Brothers

Date

1876–80

Medium

Oak with white pine

Culture

New York City

Department

Arts of the Americas

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

Founded by the German immigrant Gustave Herter in the 1850s, Herter Brothers began as a furniture manufacturing shop, but the company soon became one of America’s most notable tastemakers of the late 19th century. The firm specialized in creating the eclectic yet unified interiors popular during the Aesthetic movement. Ornamented with foliate panels, Romanesque arches, and small turned and chamfered pillars, this “modern Gothic” sideboard reinterprets the medieval past, using, for instance, the favorite Aesthetic element of the sunflower arranged in a Gothic tree-of-life motif.

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