Pair of armchairs
(c. 1815)
- Medium
- bamboo, ivory, cane
- Measurements
- (1) 95.0 × 105.0 × 97.0 cm
(2) 96.0 × 105.0 × 96.0 cm - Accession Number
- 2015.535.1-2
- Department
- International Decorative Arts
- Credit Line
- National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Gift of Rob Gould through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program, 2015 - Gallery location
- Not on display
- About this work
-
This adjustable armchair folds out to allow the sitter to recline. It was made in a Chinese workshop specifically for export to Europe. The armchair’s form is not one employed in traditional Chinese furniture. It has been executed by Chinese craftsmen in materials, and with decorative details, that Europeans particularly associated with the idea of ‘China’. The export trade thus led Chinese artists to become complicit in the fabrication of a European fantasy of Asia and its cultures.