'The Red Blue Chair' did not start out as red and blue. The original design and several early versions were simply stained wood, and the now-famous painted verions were not produced by Rietveld until 1923. Since then, however, this design has come to be identified with the geometrical style and primary colours used by the influential Dutch 'De Stijl' art movement.

Rietveld sought to discover new forms for design. He was inspired by the simple geometric furniture designed by the Dutch architect H. P. Berlage, and the work of the American architect Frank Lloyd Wright. With 'The Red Blue Chair' he attempted to construct a chair from its most basic components, producing an abstract, architectural construction that has, since the 1950s, become an icon of modernism.

This chair was made in 1970 by Gerard A. van der Groenekan, who had assisted Rietveld with making the first versions. It was acquired for an exhibition mounted by the V&A at the Whitechapel Art Gallery, Modern Chairs, at a time when the Museum did not consistently seek out original, period versions of twentieth-century design. Later, in 1989, the Museum acquired an early example of this chair in stained purplewood (Museum no. W.9-1989).