My Gothic Revival furniture project is coming along really well. I have a sloppy but complete first draft and am currently editing. In the meantime, I wanted to show you one of the pieces I will be talking about in my discussion.
Armchair, possibly by Gustav Herter, American (probably New York), c. 1855. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Photo via metmuseum.org (CC0 1.0).
Seriously, how cool is this chair? It is difficult to look at it without feeling transported to another era, which I suppose is the whole point of the Gothic Revival. It is also one of the reasons why I’m so interested in this style; it is able to make me think of two fascinating times and places at once – the middle ages in Europe and the mid nineteenth century in New York. I would like to think that whoever purchased it felt like some kind of ancient royalty every time he or she sat down in it.
Alexandra Kiely, aka A Scholarly Skater, is an art historian based in the northeastern United States. She loves wandering down the dark and dusty corners of art history and wholeheartedly believes in visual art's ability to enrich every person's life.
Her favorite periods of art history are 19th-century American painting and medieval European art and architecture. When she not looking at, reading about, writing about, or teaching art, she's probably ice dancing or reading.
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