Side chair (voyeuse à genoux)

Louis Magdeleine Pluvinet

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

A number of highly specialized pieces of furniture emerged in the context of the eighteenth-century French salon, as is demonstrated by this voyeuse à genoux, a type of side chair that first appeared around 1740. Intended for spectators of card games, one version of the voyeuse consisted of a low seat to be knelt upon by women. Another version with a higher seat was for the male spectator, who would straddle the seat with his legs. Both types of chairs were fitted with a high back padded at the top, upon which the occupant could rest his or her arms. This carved and gilded wood version by Louis Magdaleine Pluvinet is an example of the voyeuse for women, a model that fell out of fashion by the end of the eighteenth century.

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