Stained oak dining chair, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, 1902, for Ward Willits House

Summary Description
High-backed stained oak with eleven vertical slats and a drop-in seat upholstered in leather. Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright

Structure and Materials
The chair frame is of mortise-and-tenon construction with all parts of a rectilinear form. The two back uprights run the full height of the chair and taper slightly towards the top. The eleven slats extend below the seat to the back stretcher and are held at the top by a deep top rail. Ogee-shaped braces are screwed to the four inside corners of the seat frame to strengthen the leg joints. They provide additional support for the drop-in seat.

The precise spacing of the slats, the rectilinear forms and the lack of decorative elements gives a distinctly industrial look to the design. The mortise-and-tenon joints make the construction almost invisible and add to the machine-made appearance. In fact, scribed lines between the slats reveal that this precision is all achieved by hand.

Summary of later interventions/changes
The leather upholstery on the drop-in seat is not original.

Purchased with Art Fund support and the assistance of the Rudolph Palumbo Charitable Trust

Wright believed that it was impossible to detach a building from its furnishings. In an English preface to the Ausgefuhrte Bauten und Entwurfe, published in Germany in 1910 he wrote: 'In Organic Architecture… , it is quite impossible to consider the building as one thing, its furnishings another and its setting and environment still another. The Spirit in which these buildings are conceived sees all these together at work as one thing…The very chairs and tables, cabinets and even musical instruments, where practicable, are of the building itself, never fixtures upon it…'

This chair is one of a set of six designed in1902 by Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1949) for the dining room of the Ward Willits House, Highland Park, Illinois, USA. The house is an early example of what became known as Wright's 'Prairie' house style distinguished by its horizontal lines and low lying appearance. Like so many of Wright's designs the house and the chair were influenced by Japanese aesthetics.

Wright often used furniture to redefine and change interior spaces. When all six of these chairs were placed around the dining table, their tall, screen-like backs formed a second space within the room. For him, a dining room was 'always a great artistic opportunity.'

The chair was acquired along with six other Wright pieces including a glass triptych (C.115:1-3-1992), a desk (W.72-1992), two ceramic plates (C.113 and C.114-1992), an armchair (W.8-1992) and a copper urn (M.28-1992), from the
collection of Thomas S. Monaghan. On its acquisition it was described as 'one of Wright's most beautiful chair designs', representing 'the pinnacle of Arts and Crafts furniture design.'

The extraordinarily high back and severe rectilinear form of this chair inevitably invites comparison with contemporary European furniture, in particular chairs by Charles Rennie Mackintosh. The relationship between the two designers, if any, is unclear. However, it is worth recalling that Wright designed a group of high-back chairs for his own house in 1895, whereas Mackintosh's first such chair was designed in 1897.

The simplicity and solidity of this chair's form are typical of furniture in the Arts and Crafts style, but, while British designers shunned modern power tools and other industrial machinery, Wright embraced machine production. He said that he favoured 'the clean cut, straight line forms that the machine can render far better than would be possible by hand'. In this instance he has attempted to achieve a machine-made appearance while actually having to rely on hand manufacture. Simplicity was also critical to the finish of the furniture, and wood was stained, never vanished, to reveal the 'nature' of the material.

This chair is one of a set of six. Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1949) designed them for the dining room of the Ward Willits House, Highland Park, Illinois, USA. When all six were placed around the dining table, their tall, screen-like backs formed a second space within the room. Wright often used furniture in this way to redefine and change interior spaces.
The simplicity and solidity of this chair's form are typical of furniture in the Arts and Crafts style, with its respect for tradition. But while British designers shunned modern power tools and other industrial machinery, Wright embraced machine production, which is reflected in the clean, straight lines and smooth surfaces of this chair.

W.4-1992