Cabinet
Herter Brothers (New York)
1878–80
- Medium
- Rosewood with ebonized cherry, maple, walnut, satinwood, marquetry of various woods, brass, gilding, and paint
- Classification
- Furniture
- Dimensions
- 134.6 × 180.3 × 40.6 cm (53 × 71 × 16 in.)
- Culture
- New York City
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Arts of the Americas
- Credit line
- Purchased with funds provided by the Antiquarian Society through the Capital Campaign
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Little Ones profiles and older: it shows gentle subjects for the very young. How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
The influence of Japanese artistic techniques and motifs abound in this cabinet, from the dazzling gold-field butterfly plaques set into the left and right cabinet doors, to the stylized floral inlays of the ebonized central compartment. Herter Brothers was one of the leading firms that designed furniture and interiors for the American upper class during the Aesthetic Movement, a cultural trend that emphasized beauty, particularly in the home. In the late 1870s, Herter Brothers began to incorporate such Japanese-derived elements in their designs, even as the furniture forms themselves derive from European and American precedents. It was common in the period to embrace eclectic motifs as long as they achieved a sense of visual harmony.
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
