Viennese Secession Style Writing Desk, Kolo Moser

Born in Vienna in 1868, Koloman Moser briefly attended trade school, honoring his father’s wish to see him in commerce. But he soon surrendered to his artistic inclinations, enrolling in 1885 in Vienna’s Academy of Fine Arts, where he studied painting.

When his father died unexpectedly in 1888, leaving the family in financial straits, Moser (1868–1918) helped out by doing illustrations for books and magazines. Meanwhile, he continued his painting studies, at the academy and then at the School of Arts and Crafts, starting in 1892. That was also the year that Moser, along with other young artists revolting against the Viennese art world’s devotion to naturalism, formed the Siebner Club, the precursor to the Vienna Secession.

Moser’s introduction during his last term at school to Gustav Klimt’s Allegory of Sculpture proved a turning point for the young artist. Christian Witt-Dörring, guest curator of the 2018–19 exhibition “Koloman Moser: Universal Artist between Gustav Klimt and Josef Hoffmann” at the MAK in Vienna, noted a change in the artist’s drawing style. “Primarily inspired by the art of Japan, [Klimt] introduces new paper sizes, fragmented image details, and an emphasis on the line as opposed to the surface,” wrote Witt-Dörring in the exhibition’s catalogue.

A year later, in 1897, Moser together with Klimt, Carl Moll, Joseph Olbrich and Josef Hoffmann founded the Vienna Secession, a union of artists and designers determined to upend Austria’s artistic conservatism. The members were committed to making total works of art: Gesamtkunstwerken. Looking to the English Arts and Crafts Movement, with its guiding principle of unity of the arts, the group attempted to bring art back into everyday life and introduce a local modernism to fin-de-siècle Vienna. Moser, whose membership in the club also afforded him entry into upper-class Viennese society, turned his back on oil painting and forged ahead with Gesamtkunstwerk.

Moser created everything from exhibition design to facade ornamentation for the Secession Building, to graphic materials. Moser also produced posters and advertisements in his “modern style” for various companies. In 1898, he presented his first decor pieces, including hand-knotted rugs and cushion covers. In 1899, Moser began what would become a lifelong professorship at the School of Arts and Crafts. His repertoire now expanded to include furniture, ceramics and patterns like his trademark checkerboard design. He also moved into scenography and fashion and established himself as an interior designer.

The artist decorated his own home in 1902, after which he received a series of important commissions, notably the villa of textile industrialist Fritz Waerndorfer. It was Waerndorfer who provided the financial support that enabled Moser and Hoffmann in 1903 to found the Wiener Werkstätte, a platform for fully realizing their ideal of Gesamtkunstwerk. Two years later, Moser married Edith Mautner von Markhof, the daughter to one of Austria’s great industrial barons, and his work thrived. 

In 1907, the Wiener Werkstätte ran into financial trouble. Losing faith in the unity of the arts and disillusioned with the group’s dependency on wealthy patrons like Waerndorfer, Moser left the Werkstätte. He returned to his original discipline, painting, which he continued to practice until his untimely death from cancer, in 1918.

Today, Koloman Moser’s work, from his metal vases to his jewelry to his interiors, remains sought-after and revered. Browse Moser's radically modern creations at 1stDibs.

While the first name that comes to mind when thinking of bentwood furniture might be Thonet (maker of the iconic Thonet No. 14 chair or “bistro chair”), Michael Thonet and his subsequent studio, the Gebrüder Thonet (Thonet Brothers), had a strong competitor in 19th-century Vienna: Jacob & Josef Kohn (also referred to as J. & J. Kohn).

Founded in 1849 by a father and son with the motto “Be one step ahead,” Jacob & Josef Kohn created modern furniture for indoors and out from Austrian beech. At the turn of the 20th century, after establishing itself with mastery of everything from chairs to coatracks and even doll furniture, J. & J. Kohn began working closely with the Wiener Werkstätte, the artisan cooperative cofounded by Austrian architect and designer Josef Hoffmann (Gustav Klimt and Koloman Moser were also members). Through this partnership, J. & J. Kohn produced an array of furniture in bentwood, cane and upholstery, which it sold through showrooms across Europe and North America. Its designs throughout the first decade of the 20th century reflect the Art Nouveau movement that was quickly gaining traction across Europe.

Price wars and mergers ensued during the First World War. Changes in the organizational structure of Thonet included a merger with Viennese company Mundus in the early 20th century, which followed Mundus’s becoming a majority stakeholder in J. & J. Kohn — these mergers yielded the formation of Mundus-Kohn and later, in 1922–23, Thonet-Mundus. The new conglomerate went on to produce examples of its bentwood furniture in keeping with the modern style of the Vienna Secession. While Thonet rebuilt, rebranded and expanded in the United States and elsewhere after World War II, J. & J. Kohn never produced furniture under that name again.

On 1stDibs, find a variety of antique J. & J. Kohn furniture including bentwood wingback chairs designed by Josef Hoffmann and other seating, side tables, beech nesting tables and more.