Armchair 1823 - 1833

This gilded armchair, currently residing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, was designed by Karl Friedrich Schinkel, a prominent figure in 19th-century German Neoclassicism. Schinkel lived during a period of significant social and political upheaval in Europe marked by the rise of nationalism and the Napoleonic Wars. His designs often reflect a desire to create a new visual language for a changing world, drawing inspiration from both classical antiquity and contemporary aesthetics. The armchair, with its clean lines and classical motifs, speaks to the prevailing ideals of order, reason, and harmony that defined the Neoclassical movement. However, the chair also makes visible the wealth and power of the elite class for whom it was designed. Consider, as you observe this object, its implications of status and the socio-economic structures that made its creation and ownership possible.