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Lot Essay
“Nothing in the World can displace the work of art, and nothing can be of lasting value if there is a lack of striving for perfection and eternal beauty" - Josef Hoffmann, 20 April 1950, Vienna
Of the critical early years of Hoffmann’s career, the years between 1899 and 1902 saw arguably the greatest changes in his approach and style, as he abandoned the curves in his earlier work reminiscent of wider European Art Nouveau and instead adopted his own design language based on order, repetition and the considered line. The current pair of chairs, whose whereabouts was previously unrecorded, date from this vital juncture and are among the first works to exhibit the stylised geometry he was to continue to develop during the following years at the Wiener Werkstätte.
Hoffmann had begun his studies under the eminent Viennese Secessionist Otto Wagner in 1894 and formally joined Wagner’s architectural office in 1897. He began exhibiting works the following year and received wide international acclaim by 1900 after he exhibited at the Paris Exposition Universelle where he attracted prominent clients who admired the ‘arching curvilinearity’ of his work, reflective of the concurrent Art Nouveau movement. An early client, Ministerial Secretary Dr. Gustav Pollak employed Hoffmann between 1899-1900 to design a smoking room and study in his villa at Wienerstaße 117, Atzgersdorf, near Vienna. This first commission employed linear forms with stencilled stylised trees to the walls. Hoffmann’s style however had transformed by 1901 when Pollak again approached Hoffmann to design three rooms in his Vienna apartment at Brahmsplatz 2.
The present chairs were placed in the key environment of Dr. Pollak’s new Study, where they were surrounded by works featuring the same undulating ornamental inlay set in dark rich timbers, set against a warm grey wall. This opulence and contrast of this room compared with the less high status works Hoffmann created for the Ante-Room, where the furniture was coloured in tones of grey and blue, and the Dining Room, where the furniture was inlaid pitch pine. In place the apartment by 1902 they pre-date founding of the Wiener Werkstätte the following year, and so to execute the commission Hoffmann had selected the pre-eminent Viennese cabinetmaking firm of Portois & Fix.
This re-discovered pair of inlaid chairs from the Pollak Study now join a precious group of known works from this commission, namely a single armchair (exhibited recently at the Hoffmann retrospective exhibition at the MAK in Vienna) and an ensuite small occasional table from the same interior (sold Christie’s London, Historical Design, 3 November 2015, lot 1), and allows us to revisit Hoffmann's work at this key juncture. Boldly outlining the initial boundaries of his own inspirational style, the current pair of armchairs highlight a vital journey of stylistic change the 31 year old Hoffmann had already confidently embraced. They are amongst his very first works to portray the considered and hugely influential visual design language for which he is today so celebrated.
Of the critical early years of Hoffmann’s career, the years between 1899 and 1902 saw arguably the greatest changes in his approach and style, as he abandoned the curves in his earlier work reminiscent of wider European Art Nouveau and instead adopted his own design language based on order, repetition and the considered line. The current pair of chairs, whose whereabouts was previously unrecorded, date from this vital juncture and are among the first works to exhibit the stylised geometry he was to continue to develop during the following years at the Wiener Werkstätte.
Hoffmann had begun his studies under the eminent Viennese Secessionist Otto Wagner in 1894 and formally joined Wagner’s architectural office in 1897. He began exhibiting works the following year and received wide international acclaim by 1900 after he exhibited at the Paris Exposition Universelle where he attracted prominent clients who admired the ‘arching curvilinearity’ of his work, reflective of the concurrent Art Nouveau movement. An early client, Ministerial Secretary Dr. Gustav Pollak employed Hoffmann between 1899-1900 to design a smoking room and study in his villa at Wienerstaße 117, Atzgersdorf, near Vienna. This first commission employed linear forms with stencilled stylised trees to the walls. Hoffmann’s style however had transformed by 1901 when Pollak again approached Hoffmann to design three rooms in his Vienna apartment at Brahmsplatz 2.
The present chairs were placed in the key environment of Dr. Pollak’s new Study, where they were surrounded by works featuring the same undulating ornamental inlay set in dark rich timbers, set against a warm grey wall. This opulence and contrast of this room compared with the less high status works Hoffmann created for the Ante-Room, where the furniture was coloured in tones of grey and blue, and the Dining Room, where the furniture was inlaid pitch pine. In place the apartment by 1902 they pre-date founding of the Wiener Werkstätte the following year, and so to execute the commission Hoffmann had selected the pre-eminent Viennese cabinetmaking firm of Portois & Fix.
This re-discovered pair of inlaid chairs from the Pollak Study now join a precious group of known works from this commission, namely a single armchair (exhibited recently at the Hoffmann retrospective exhibition at the MAK in Vienna) and an ensuite small occasional table from the same interior (sold Christie’s London, Historical Design, 3 November 2015, lot 1), and allows us to revisit Hoffmann's work at this key juncture. Boldly outlining the initial boundaries of his own inspirational style, the current pair of armchairs highlight a vital journey of stylistic change the 31 year old Hoffmann had already confidently embraced. They are amongst his very first works to portray the considered and hugely influential visual design language for which he is today so celebrated.