Modern Painted Furniture
The late 19th and early 20th centuries saw sweeping social change and major scientific advances — both of which contributed to a new aesthetic: modernism. Rejecting the rigidity of Victorian artistic conventions, modernists sought a new means of expression. References to the natural world and ornate classical embellishments gave way to the sleek simplicity of the Machine Age. Architect Philip Johnson characterized the hallmarks of modernism as “machine-like simplicity, smoothness or surface [and] avoidance of ornament.”
Early practitioners of modernist design include the De Stijl (“The Style”) group, founded in the Netherlands in 1917, and the Bauhaus School, founded two years later in Germany.
Followers of both groups produced sleek, spare designs — many of which became icons of daily life in the 20th century. The modernists rejected both natural and historical references and relied primarily on industrial materials such as metal, glass, plywood, and, later, plastics. While Bauhaus principals Marcel Breuer and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe created furniture from mass-produced, chrome-plated steel, American visionaries like Charles and Ray Eames worked in materials as novel as molded plywood and fiberglass. Today, Breuer’s Wassily chair, Mies van der Rohe’s Barcelona chair — crafted with his romantic partner, designer Lilly Reich — and the Eames lounge chair are emblems of progressive design and vintage originals are prized cornerstones of collections.
It’s difficult to overstate the influence that modernism continues to wield over designers and architects — and equally difficult to overstate how revolutionary it was when it first appeared a century ago. But because modernist furniture designs are so simple, they can blend in seamlessly with just about any type of décor. Don’t overlook them.
21st Century and Contemporary French Modern Painted Furniture
Metal, Aluminum
2010s French Modern Painted Furniture
Metal, Aluminum
Early 2000s American Modern Painted Furniture
Wood
15th Century and Earlier Italian Antique Modern Painted Furniture
Wood, Paint
Late 19th Century American Antique Modern Painted Furniture
Wood
1960s Hungarian Vintage Modern Painted Furniture
Pine
Early 1900s Swedish Antique Modern Painted Furniture
Pine
Mid-19th Century Swedish Antique Modern Painted Furniture
Pine
1940s Hungarian Vintage Modern Painted Furniture
Pine
20th Century French Modern Painted Furniture
Pine, Paint
Early 1900s Antique Modern Painted Furniture
Paint
20th Century American Modern Painted Furniture
Metal
Late 19th Century Antique Modern Painted Furniture
Paint
1970s Danish Vintage Modern Painted Furniture
Fabric, Wood
1970s Danish Vintage Modern Painted Furniture
Fabric, Wood
Early 2000s American Modern Painted Furniture
Maple