Side chair (one of a pair)

Jean-Jacques Pothier

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Made by Jean-Jacques Pothier around 1775, these chairs are known as cabriolets. Introduced around 1760, their name derives from a new light one-horse driven carriage, called “cabriolet”. Pothier became master in Paris in 1750. In his workshop, first located in the rue Mazarine and then in the rue de Bourbon, he executed his best pieces in the neoclassical style which are very close to the works by Georges Jacob. This type of light chair, first mostly used in the apartments of women, was easy to move. The oval-shape back is reminiscent of antique medallions. The straight legs carved with twisted flutes, terminating in peg-top feet and connected to the seat by cubical blocks, are characteristic of the neoclassical taste which was in vogue during Louis XVI’s reign.

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