Side Cabinet

Designer Joseph Maria Olbrich (Austrian, 1867 - 1908)

Manufacturer Glückert Manufactory (German, 1838 - 1943)

Manufacturer Julius Glückert (German, 1848 - 1911)

Manufacturer Royal Furniture Manufacturer (1838 - 1943)

Date1902

MediumWood with paint, glass, brass, copper, and gilding

DimensionsOverall: 72 1/2 × 26 1/2 × 13 1/4 inches (184.15 × 67.31 × 33.66 cm)

Credit LinePurchase: the Lillian M. Diveley Fund

Object number2005.24

On View

On view

Gallery Location

Collections

Architecture, Design and Decorative Arts

Terms

DescriptionA white-painted side cabinet with an upper section composed of a glazed cupboard compartment that angles outward toward the back of the cabinet and possesses a keyed opening of embossed copper. The cupboard door is beveled glass with a circular brass frame decorated with an incised, gilt, geometric and curvilinear border. Below the cupboard door is an open area. The upper section is set back from the lower section. The lower section, which angles forward from the sides towards the drawer escutcheons, is composed of four drawers with embosse dcopper escutcheons on tapering legs.Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Prima Esposizione Internazionale D’Arte Decorativa Moderna, Turin, Italy, April–November 1902, no cat.

Inventing the Modern World: Decorative Arts at the World’s Fairs 1851-1939. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO April 14– August 19, 2012; Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, October 13, 2012– February 24, 2013, New Orleans Museum of Art, April 12– August 4, 2013; Mint Museum, Charlotte, North Carolina, September 9, 3013– January 19, 2014, cat. no. 129.

Gallery Label

Joseph Maria Olbrich, designer

Austrian, 1867–1908

Glückert Manufactory, manufacturer

Germany (Darmstadt), 1838–1943

Side Cabinet, 1902

Wood with paint and glass with brass, copper, and gilding

This side cabinet was part of a bedroom set designed by Austrian architect and designer Joseph Maria Olbrich. Painted completely white, the set stood in stark contrast to the elaborate and overly ornamented interiors popular in about 1900.

With its flowing lines on the embossed copper key plates, the side cabinet retains a trace of the organic Art Nouveau style popular at the time. Its simplified elegance suggests early Modernism, and the severe angles of the woodwork look toward later styles.

Purchase: the Lillian M. Diveley Fund, 2005.24

Provenance

Purchased from Sotheby’s Fine and Decorative Arts & Design from 1870, Sotheby’s, London, September 22, 2005, lot 51, by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 2005.

Published References

Fine and Decorative Arts & Design from 1870 (London:Sotheby’s, 2005),52-53, (repro.).

Catherine Futter, Jason T. Busch, et al. Inventing the Modern World : Decorative Arts at the World's Fairs, 1851-1939 (Pittsburgh, PA: Kansas City, MO: New York: Carnegie Museum of Art; The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art; Skira Rizzoli, 2012), 208-209 (repro.).

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