Siège à Dossier Basculant (No. B301)
Design Date 1928–1929
Designer Le Corbusier (1887–1965, French, b. Switzerland), Pierre Jeanneret (1896–1967, Swiss), & Charlotte Perriand (1903–1999, French)
Manufacturer Stendig, Switzerland
Media chrome-plated tubular steel and leather upholstery
Dimensions 25 x 25 x 25 1/4 inches
This adjustable-back armchair made of metal tubing and leather upholstery resembles the tubular steel Wassily Chair designed by Marcel Breuer in 1925 (also represented in Kirkland Museum’s collection). Le Corbusier, whose architecture and design exemplified his idea of the “machine for living”, designed this chair, along with his associates Pierre Jeanneret and Charlotte Perriand, as a functional piece, a sort of equipment for living, with its adjustable back and the sterility of the tubular steel frame. The design for this chair was adapted from the traditional colonial chair. Le Corbusier encouraged this comparison by exhibiting the Basculant Chair next to a 19th-century colonial chair in Paris student housing he designed.
ON VIEW in Bauhaus Gallery 5
Markings Oval-shaped sticker on bottom, "ORIGINAL DESIGN STENDIG MADE IN SWITZERLAND
Credit Line Collection Kirkland Museum of Fine & Decorative Art
Accession Number 2007.0683
