6: Russian Furniture of the Late 18th - First Half of the 19th Centuries

Chair and Screen

1850

From a design by Andrei Stakenschneider

St Petersburg

Chair: 99x48x55 cm
Screen: 119x145x35

Wood, damask; carving, gilding

From the Pavilion Hall in the Winter Palace

This chair and fire-screen were parts of a grand set of furniture specially made for the Pavilion Hall in the Small Hermitage. The impression of festive grandeur was achieved not only by the complete gilding of the carved wooden frame, but also by upholstery of expensive brocade with a double-sided pattern. The general approach taken in these items accords with the "Second Rococo" style fashionable in the middle of the 19th century that imitated the rocaille forms characteristic of the reigns of Empress Elizabeth and Louis XV.