The cabinet-maker Louis Majorelle was one of the most influential designers of the Art Nouveau movement. He trained as a painter before inheriting his father's cabinet-making business in Nancy, France, in 1879. At first he continued to make furniture in the popular Rococo Revival style, but during the 1890s he came under the influence of Emile Gallé at the Ecole de Nancy and began to design slender pieces of furniture--such as this armchair--ornamented with carving and marquetry, using naturalistic floral motifs and forms. Although the carving of the walnut frame on this chair is relatively simple, the design is carefully considered to give the effect of flowing, branch-like forms.

Though Majorelle considered structure and proportion more important than decorative ornament, and constantly sought new forms for his furniture, he also became a highly original designer of ornament. His early work with Rococo Revival design may have been one reason for his facility in designing free-flowing, elegantly curved forms. He used plant forms as inspiration but re-interpreted them as sophisticated, semi-abstract motifs. The silk upholstery on this chair, which exactly reproduces its original cover, illustrates clearly how he used nature as an inspiration but not directly as a model.