CIRCA 1935, ATTRIBUTED TO JOSEF FRANK (1885-1957)

Josef Frank (1885-1967) was an Austrian-born architect and designer. Part of the Vienna Modernism, in the 1920s he began to question the evolution towards pure modernism advocated by le Corbusier's motto that a house should be a "machine for living". Josef Frank was more inclined to produce a freer and softer modernism that would not overlook comfort, colours and a feeling of hominess. Keen to reproduce natural forms in interior design, he was particularly inspired by "see-though" furniture, such as chairs with an open back. Having moved to Sweden to flee Nazism, he was hired by Estrid Ericson in 1934 to work for her interior design shop Svenskt Tenn. Their collaboration gave birth to a very successful modern style, which combined Josef Frank's Viennese elegance and eclecticism with Swedish functionalism.