Gerrit Th. Rietveld, designed in 1918, executed in 1923/1924
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Gerrit Th. Rietveld, designed in 1918, executed in 1923/1924

A WHITE-LACQUERED RED-BLUE CHAIR

Details
Gerrit Th. Rietveld, designed in 1918, executed in 1923/1924
A WHITE-LACQUERED RED-BLUE CHAIR
87 cm. high x 65,5 cm. wide x 84 cm. deep
Provenance
Til Brugman, thence by descent to the present owner
Literature
Sjarel Ex, Els Hoek, Vilmos Huszár schilder en ontwerper
1884-1960
, Utrecht, 1985, pp. 86-87, afb. 130-133
Marijke Küper, Ida van Zijl, Gerrit Th. Rietveld 1881-1964. Het
volledige werk
, Utrecht, 1992, p. 76
Special notice
Christie’s charges a premium to the buyer on the Hammer Price of each lot sold at the following rates: 29.75% of the Hammer Price of each lot up to and including €5,000, plus 23.8% of the Hammer Price between €5,001 and €400,000, plus 14.28% of any amount in excess of €400,001. Buyer’s premium is calculated on the basis of each lot individually.
Further details
END OF SALE

Lot Essay

The present chair was designed by Gerrit Th. Rietveld as a special commission for Til Brugman in 1923. De Stijl painter Vilmos Huszár restyled the interior of her house in The Hague using the furniture of his fellow De Stijl member Gerrit Rietveld to complement the interior. In the room a multi-colored end table by Gerrit Th. Rietveld was also included, which was sold on the 16th of November 2004 in these rooms.

The first examples of the Red-Blue chair were constructed of unpainted wood. After Rietveld joined De Stijl the first painted examples of the chair were created. It was not until 1923, the same year that this white version for Til Brugman was executed, that the first example with red and blue was completed. The use of primary colors on the Red-Blue chair was probably inspired by Theo van Doesburg and Vilmos Huszár.

Til Brugman was the first Dutch lesbian avant-garde author, who wrote novels and Dadaistic poems. She became acquainted with many of De Stijl artist through her friend Piet Mondriaan. Although her artistic contributions to De Stijl are minimal, behind the scenes her assistance was more substantial; she mediated in the sales of works of art for (amongst others) Piet Mondriaan and translated many articles for the magazine De Stijl. In some of her novels events from her life with members of De Stijl can be discovered.

On contemporary photographs of her interior can be seen how much the interior was modernized by the restyling of Vilmos Huszár. This chair was thought to be lost, but was recovered from the property of a private collector.

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