Tag Archives: Ornate

Eye On Design: Neoclassical Armchair by Georges Jacob

neoclassical armchair by georges jacob photo by gail worley
All Photos By Gail

J. Pierpont Morgan amassed large holdings of medieval art and seventeenth-and-eighteenth-century French decorative art from the collection of interior decorator Georges Hoentschel. Grasping the collection’s importance to artists and designers, Morgan immediately donated many decorative works to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Even the financier may not have fully realized what an impact his gift would have. It led to a new wing, which opened in 1910, and the creation of The Met’s Decorative Arts department, which was the first of its kind in an American museum. Continue reading Eye On Design: Neoclassical Armchair by Georges Jacob

Eye On Design: Grecian Sofa Circa 1820

Grecian Sofa
All Photos By Gail

This Grecian Sofa (New York Circa 1820 – 25) exhibits a highly sophisticate blend of line, detailed carving and subtle color.

Sofa Arm Detail

The carved vert antique legs in the shape of dolphins are found on others sofas of the period and relate to maritime talismans. Traditionally, in Greek myth, dolphins aided shipwrecked sailors.

Sofa Installation View

Photographed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC.

Butterfly Gates

Butterfly Gates
Photo By Gail

These superb Wrought Iron Gates (circa 1900) by Emile Robert (French 1860 -1924) are rendered by hand in the curvilinear Art Nouveau style, which originated in northern Europe in the late 1890s and flourished until World War I. The revival of interest in wrought iron work in this period was inspired by the beautiful, ornate, Rococo gates and fences around the main square and garden of the French city of Nancy, an early center of the Art Nouveau style. The butterfly motif in these gates is indicative of the main influences of Art Nouveau design: observation of the natural world and motifs popular in Japanese art.

Photographed in the Brooklyn Museum.