Armchair Jean Baptiste Gourdin (1723-1781) c. 1760

This armchair was designed by Jean-Baptiste Gourdin, a French designer of the 18th century. It embodies the Rococo style with its curving lines, floral motifs, and opulent materials. The very existence of such an object speaks volumes about the society that produced it. France at this time was a society of strict social hierarchy and staggering inequality, in which a small class of elites possessed untold wealth and power. Chairs like this one were pieces of elaborate theater, meant to broadcast the status of their owners and, by extension, to legitimize the system that put them there. To understand this chair better, we might consult inventories of aristocratic households, design pattern books, and even political pamphlets critical of courtly excess. These allow us to understand the complex relationship between art and the political and social structures in which it is made.