Two for one day!

First we have old chairs well it was supposed to be one, but I drew a lot. Later I realized that I was subconsciously thinking about Lisa Congdon’s Swedish Chairs. 

Chairs are so interesting, and very easily recognizable to their time period. They can even reflect what the fashion of the time was, or perhaps reflect events surrounding (or being sat upon) it. For example, chairs from the French Rococo period would be extremely ornate with carved swirls, scallops, and shells, and perhaps gold leafed, reflecting the frivolity of the time. I learned in class once that because of King Louis XV’s love of ballet, they were smaller, allowing men to sit on the front of the chair and gracefully show off their legs. At least, I think that’s what I heard. I was probably doodling. I could be making this all up. I couldn’t really find anything in a quick google search, which you know, is the fount of all sound knowledge.

After the French Revolution, chairs became more solid in design, showing the stricter monarchy (poor Marie Antoinette…), since so much of fashion and design was influenced by the monarchy back then.

Speaking of monarchs, Victorian chairs boasts some of the richest, heaviest, darkest, yet sensible chair designs, and the Victorian era also happened to be kinda dark and heavy but sensible due to the fact that poor Queen Victoria was sad and in mourning for most of her reign, due to her beloved husband Albert’s untimely death. But she was a very good English Queen. Very sensible indeed.

Actually around the same time, the Bentwood Chair (which looks like bent… wood) was the first of its type. Created by Michael Thonet, it’s simplistic design and the ability to mass produce this product took over the chair-world one cafe at a time. They are also easy to ship since they come apart and can lay flat, and are very light making transport easy. You’ve probably sat in these before.

The 60s, 70s, and beyond? Who really knows what drugs they were taking they were thinking. I like them though, very cool minimalist styles. Who doesn’t want to feel like they are sitting in a bubble?

Anyway, there’s whole museums about chairs. Or at least sections. We could go on for days. But I won’t. Because I’m not that knowledgeable about chairs. Although I sit in them quite a lot.

And then the next thing was draw a person from history for which there is no photo reference. Noah is the first person that came to mind for some reason… and I figured since we have no photo references of that time, who knows! They may have had antediluvian power tools and been concerned about job site safety.