Chair

Chair

1700s
Artist
unknown artist
Country
Colombia
Object
side chair
Medium
Paint and gold leaf on gessoed wood with velvet upholstery.
Accession Number
1990.287
Credit Line
Gift of the Stapleton Foundation of Latin American Colonial Art, made possible by the Renchard family

Unknown artist, Chair, 1700s. Paint and gold leaf on gessoed wood with velvet upholstery; 46 × 28 × 28 in. Gift of the Stapleton Foundation of Latin American Colonial Art, made possible by the Renchard family, 1990.287.

Dimensions
height: 46 in, 116.8400 cm; width: 28 in, 71.1200 cm; depth: 28 in, 71.1200 cm
Inscription
none
Department
Mayer Center, Latin American Art
Collection
Latin American Art

This chair, likely a product of a workshop in an Andean center like Bogotá, is an example of the lavish furniture arts of New Granada, the colonial province that included present-day Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela and parts of Panama. The velvet unholstery, probably not original, appears to have been made from a liturgical vestment. The claw-and-ball feet suggest an eighteenth-century date. While this ornate, armless variety is often referred to as a “bishop’s chair,” that label is misleading because this type was found in wealthy private residences in Europe and the Americas.
-- Donna Pierce, 2015

Known Provenance
Collected by Daniel Casey Stapleton [1858-1920] while living in Colombia and Ecuador, 1895-1914; gifted to the Denver Art Museum 26 December 1990 by the Stapleton Foundation of Latin American Colonial Art, made possible by the Renchard Family.