DESIGNED BY OTTO WAGNER FOR HIS VIENNA APARTMENT, 1912

In 1911/12, Wagner designed a strikingly modern apartment building at Döblergasse 4, in Vienna. Massive riveted steel doors with tall windows above marked the entrance, which opened on to a sweeping marble staircase leading to the inner entrance. The Wagners' own apartment was on the first floor, and the present chair was one of three designed by Wagner for the inner hall. A pair were placed flanking a simple matching grey-lacquered table, and the third was set in the near corner next to a wall of fitted cupboards (see contemporary photograph right, reproduced from Das Interieur, 1913). This cool grey entrance was in stark contrast to the spacious but richly furnished and decorated living rooms which made up the rest of the four-roomed apartment.
Of the other two chairs for the entrance hall, one is in the permanent collection of the MAK in Vienna, the second is in a private collection. See: Das Interieur, XIV, 1913, p. 48.
For a detailed and fully illustrated discussion of Wagner's apartment and building at Döblergasse 4, see: Asenbaum, Haiko, Lachmayer and Zettl, Otto Wagner: Möbel und Innenräume, Vienna, 1984, pp. 252 - 272.