Drie stoelen 1745 - 1775

Curator: This print, held here at the Rijksmuseum, presents a set of chair designs dating back to between 1745 and 1775. The work, attributed to an anonymous designer, is crafted with meticulous engraving. Editor: There’s a fascinating austerity in these baroque chair designs. They are placed against that tiled floor like objects in a geometry problem. Very precise and elegant, though the lack of color seems to flatten them. Curator: Precisely. Note the careful execution of the engraved lines and hatching—techniques used to convey dimension and texture despite the monochromatic palette. Each chair type, a gondolle and two cabriolets, displays its unique construction. I'm particularly drawn to the proportional relationships between seat, legs, and backrest. Editor: Beyond the geometry, I find myself wondering what these chairs represented socially. Each detail, those little faces on the legs, and floral garlands, signals a particular aspiration and identity. Furniture in this era was almost like wearable heraldry. Curator: Indeed. And one can further dissect the design itself through, say, structuralist lens. The variations in shape across the three chairs speak to an underlying grammar of form. They’re differentiated by incremental shifts within the established framework of the baroque chair. Editor: The names "gondolle" and "cabriolet" evoke specific lifestyles and experiences: water travel, open-air carriages... It makes me think of the chair as an extension of the sitter’s body, reflecting and amplifying their desired status and freedom. Curator: A very pertinent point. This image is a masterclass in rendering complex forms through simple linear means. Editor: It makes us consider the chair's position, quite literally, in society. Curator: Exactly. We leave our listeners now to sit with their impressions. Editor: Until the next visual journey!