Side Chair for the Imperial Hotel, Tokyo Designer: Frank Lloyd Wright (American, 1867–1959)
Maker, attributed to: Matthew Brothers Furniture Company (active 1857-1937)

Probably designed February 3, 1921

American Decorative Arts

By appointment, Hume Furniture Study

Frank Lloyd Wright is considered the progenitor of modernism in America. This chair is from Wright's 1916–22 commission for the Imperial Hotel, in Tokyo, Japan. It was but one component in the interior scheme, which included accessories that Wright designed for the tearoom of the hotel. The bold Cubist composition of the chair was a forerunner of the angular designs of a decade later.

Medium

Oak

Dimensions

37 13/16 × 15 9/16 × 19 1/4 in. (96 × 39.6 × 48.9 cm)

Credit Line

Bequest of Wilma B. Keyes

Accession Number

1994.37.2

Geography

Made in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Designed in Probably Spring Green, Wisconsin

Culture

American

Period

20th century

Classification

Furniture

Disclaimer

Note: This electronic record was created from historic documentation that does not necessarily reflect the Yale University Art Gallery’s complete or current knowledge about the object. Review and updating of records is ongoing.

Provenance
Commissioned by the Imperial Hotel, Tokyo, Japan, after 1921-67; sold with the contents of the hotel at a deaprtment store in Nagoya, Japan, 1967; purchased through an unknown agent by Wilma B. Keyes, Mansfield Center, Conn., 1967-94
Bibliography
  • John Stuart Gordon et al., A Modern World: American Design from the Yale University Art Gallery, 1920–1950 (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 2011), 59, no. 28
  • "Acquisitions, January 1994–December 1995," Yale University Art Gallery Bulletin (1995–96), 143, ill
Object copyright
Copyright Artist/Estate/Foundation
In Copyright
Additional information

Object/Work type

side chairs

Technical metadata and APIs

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