Arthur Heygate Mackmurdo
Chaircirca 1883

On view:

Geffen Galleries, floor 1

Wooden side chair with chestnut-brown frame, caramel leather seat with brass nail-head trim, and open pierced back panel carved with swirling dark botanical forms

Wooden side chair with dark walnut finish, featuring an openwork carved back with flowing organic Art Nouveau motifs, a brown leather upholstered seat with brass nailhead trim, and slender tapered legs.

Wooden side chair with carved and pierced back panel featuring flowing organic motifs, brown leather upholstered seat with brass nail-head trim, and tapered legs with curved rear supports.

Wooden side chair viewed from the rear, with an elaborately pierced and carved back depicting a swan amid flowing aquatic plants, dark leather upholstered seat with brass nail-head trim, and cabriole legs in warm brown wood.

Wooden chair back with carved and pierced panel featuring sinuous Art Nouveau plant forms—curving stems rising to poppy-like seed heads at the top, with interlacing tendrils and fronds coiling at the base, set within a shaped walnut frame.

Wooden chair back with elaborate fretwork pierced carving depicting a swan among tall poppy or thistle stems, in dark walnut-toned wood with a leather upholstered seat visible below.

Designed by: Arthur Heygate Mackmurdo
England, 1851-1942, active London
Designed for: The Century Guild
England, London, 1882-circa 1892
Manufacturer: Collinson & Lock
England, London, 1870-1897
Title: Chair
Place Made: England
Date Made: circa 1883
Medium: Mahogany, leather, and brass
Dimensions: 38 1/2 × 19 1/2 × 19 1/2 in.
Credit Line: The Los Angeles County Museum of Art and The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens, purchased jointly with funds provided by Max Palevsky and Jodie Evans, the Decorative Arts and Design Council, the Frances Crandall Dyke Bequest, the Schweppe Art Acquisitions Fund, and MaryLou Boone
Accession Number: M.2009.115
Classification: Furnishings
Collecting Area: Decorative Arts and Design
Curatorial Notes: According to Nikolaus Pevsner, whose book Pioneers of Modern Design (1936) defined the field for generations, A. H. Mackmurdo’s furniture designs exhibit “the same astounding independence as his contemporary architecture.” Addressing this chair specifically, he noted that Mackmurdo’s “consistent emphasis on long, undulating lines, flame-like or seaweed-like . . . points straight forward into Art Nouveau,” which would not be manifested on the Continent for another decade. When discussing the genesis of Art Nouveau, virtually every book on the subject includes an image of this chair. Its appearance in the 1885 International Inventions Exhibition in South Kensington, London, demonstrates the early recognition of its innovative design.

The Arts and Crafts movement lays equal claim to Mackmurdo, whose life is a paradigm of the movement’s ideals. He shared his mentor John Ruskin’s goal of social uplift and taught with him at the Working Men’s College in the slums of London’s East End. In 1882, he founded the Century Guild, a small collective of architects, designers, and craftsmen that aimed to restore “joy in labor” through the unification of all art forms, fine and applied, and a return to the handmade. Its journal, The Hobby Horse, introduced progressive British design to a European audience. This chair is an early example of the Guild’s work. Despite its medievalizing name, the work produced there was different from the Gothic Revival associated with early Arts and Crafts. While displaying the same devotion to structural honesty, the Guild’s designs are characterized by the swirling stem-and-flower forms and asymmetrical patterns found on the back of this chair as well as on the metalwork, fabric, embroideries, and other furnishings produced by the firm. Although the Guild was an immediate success, very few of Mackmurdo’s now-iconic chair were actually made, and only five (now in museum collections) have surfaced over the years.

Wendy Kaplan, Department Head and Curator, Decorative Arts and Design

Adapted from the 2009 text

Bibliography

Pevsner, Nikolaus. Pioneers of Modern Design. London: Faber & Faber, 1936.

Pevsner, Nikolaus. “Arthur H. Mackmurdo: A Pioneer Designer.” The Architectural Review 83 (1938): 141−43.
Selected Bibliography: Hess, Catherine, and Melinda McCurry. Blue Boy & Co.: European Art at the Huntington. San Marino: Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens, 2015.

Related Unframed

Arthur Heygate Mackmurdo
Chaircirca 1883

On view:

Geffen Galleries, floor 1

Designed by: Arthur Heygate Mackmurdo
England, 1851-1942, active London
Designed for: The Century Guild
England, London, 1882-circa 1892
Manufacturer: Collinson & Lock
England, London, 1870-1897
Title: Chair
Place Made: England
Date Made: circa 1883
Medium: Mahogany, leather, and brass
Dimensions: 38 1/2 × 19 1/2 × 19 1/2 in.
Credit Line: The Los Angeles County Museum of Art and The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens, purchased jointly with funds provided by Max Palevsky and Jodie Evans, the Decorative Arts and Design Council, the Frances Crandall Dyke Bequest, the Schweppe Art Acquisitions Fund, and MaryLou Boone
Accession Number: M.2009.115
Classification: Furnishings
Collecting Area: Decorative Arts and Design
Curatorial Notes: According to Nikolaus Pevsner, whose book Pioneers of Modern Design (1936) defined the field for generations, A. H. Mackmurdo’s furniture designs exhibit “the same astounding independence as his contemporary architecture.” Addressing this chair specifically, he noted that Mackmurdo’s “consistent emphasis on long, undulating lines, flame-like or seaweed-like . . . points straight forward into Art Nouveau,” which would not be manifested on the Continent for another decade. When discussing the genesis of Art Nouveau, virtually every book on the subject includes an image of this chair. Its appearance in the 1885 International Inventions Exhibition in South Kensington, London, demonstrates the early recognition of its innovative design.

The Arts and Crafts movement lays equal claim to Mackmurdo, whose life is a paradigm of the movement’s ideals. He shared his mentor John Ruskin’s goal of social uplift and taught with him at the Working Men’s College in the slums of London’s East End. In 1882, he founded the Century Guild, a small collective of architects, designers, and craftsmen that aimed to restore “joy in labor” through the unification of all art forms, fine and applied, and a return to the handmade. Its journal, The Hobby Horse, introduced progressive British design to a European audience. This chair is an early example of the Guild’s work. Despite its medievalizing name, the work produced there was different from the Gothic Revival associated with early Arts and Crafts. While displaying the same devotion to structural honesty, the Guild’s designs are characterized by the swirling stem-and-flower forms and asymmetrical patterns found on the back of this chair as well as on the metalwork, fabric, embroideries, and other furnishings produced by the firm. Although the Guild was an immediate success, very few of Mackmurdo’s now-iconic chair were actually made, and only five (now in museum collections) have surfaced over the years.

Wendy Kaplan, Department Head and Curator, Decorative Arts and Design

Adapted from the 2009 text

Bibliography

Pevsner, Nikolaus. Pioneers of Modern Design. London: Faber & Faber, 1936.

Pevsner, Nikolaus. “Arthur H. Mackmurdo: A Pioneer Designer.” The Architectural Review 83 (1938): 141−43.
Selected Bibliography: Hess, Catherine, and Melinda McCurry. Blue Boy & Co.: European Art at the Huntington. San Marino: Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens, 2015.