Side chair (one of a pair)

Jean-Baptiste III Lelarge

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This side chair with its slightly curved back is known as cabriolets (chaises en cabriolets). Introduced around 1760, their name derives from a newly fashionable light one-horse carriage, called a “cabriolet”. The frame of the oval back and seat are carved with interlacing bands or guilloche motifs typical for the neoclassical style. Part of a larger set of seat furniture, these chairs are stamped I.B LELARGE. The menuisier Jean-Baptiste lll Lelarge who became a master in 1775, used the same stamp as his father, Jean-Baptiste ll Lelarge (maitre in 1738) after taking over his workshop in 1771. Jean-Baptiste lll rapidly rose to fame working for patrons in France and abroad.

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The fifty thousand objects in the Museum's comprehensive and historically important collection of European sculpture and decorative arts reflect the development of a number of art forms in Western European countries from the early fifteenth through the early twentieth century. The holdings include sculpture in many sizes and media, woodwork and furniture, ceramics and glass, metalwork and jewelry, horological and mathematical instruments, and tapestries and textiles. Ceramics made in Asia for export to European markets and sculpture and decorative arts produced in Latin America during this period are also included among these works.

Metropolitan Museum of Art