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Lot Essay
Rietveld designed this high chair for the first child of H.J. Schelling, born on 19 May 1918. It was the first piece of furniture by Rietveld to be published in De Stijl, including his comments on the usability of the design and the colours of the Schelling chair, painted in green, light green and red. It was not until 1919 when he first used the primary colours red, blue and yellow in a cradle for his son Jan, and later in the Hartog interior in 1922.
The chair indicated a break with his earlier work in the tradition of Jac. van den Bosch, P.J.C. Klaarhamer and H.P. Berlage, as Rietveld decided to use pegged joints instead of dowelled joints. These modern pegged joints allowed him greater freedom in his designs and fitted better in modern production processes.
The present chair was made for Maria Witteveen (1924-1991), daughter of the architect Willem Witteveen and Anna Wibaut. It is the only known remaining example of this design as the Schelling chair went lost. The chair stayed in the family up to the present day.
See also:
Marijke Küper and Ida van Zijl, Gerrit Th. Rietveld 1888-1964. Het volledige werk, Utrecht, 1992, pp. 72-73 and 76
The chair indicated a break with his earlier work in the tradition of Jac. van den Bosch, P.J.C. Klaarhamer and H.P. Berlage, as Rietveld decided to use pegged joints instead of dowelled joints. These modern pegged joints allowed him greater freedom in his designs and fitted better in modern production processes.
The present chair was made for Maria Witteveen (1924-1991), daughter of the architect Willem Witteveen and Anna Wibaut. It is the only known remaining example of this design as the Schelling chair went lost. The chair stayed in the family up to the present day.
See also:
Marijke Küper and Ida van Zijl, Gerrit Th. Rietveld 1888-1964. Het volledige werk, Utrecht, 1992, pp. 72-73 and 76