Armchair (bergère en cabriolet) (one of a pair)

Claude-Louis Burgat

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This transitional armchair combines the curvilinear design of the Rococo style with motifs that were widely used during the Neoclassical period, such as the continuous border of overlapping medallions on the arm supports and the guilloche pattern on the seat rails. The closed area between the arms and the seat, together with the concave back, classify it as a bergère en cabriolet, one of the new types of chair introduced during the eighteenth century that expressed the increasing interest in comfort and informality.

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