Modern Settees
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 The modernists rejected both natural and historical references and relied primarily on industrial materials such as metal, glass, plywood, and, later, plastics.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.
2010s European Modern Settees
Bronze
21st Century and Contemporary Indian Modern Settees
Bronze
21st Century and Contemporary American Modern Settees
Bronze
21st Century and Contemporary English Modern Settees
Brass
2010s American Modern Settees
Ash
2010s American Modern Settees
Walnut
2010s American Modern Settees
Ash
Late 20th Century Italian Modern Settees
Mohair, Wood
1980s Vintage Modern Settees
Cotton, Walnut
1980s Danish Vintage Modern Settees
Wool, Pine
2010s American Modern Settees
Upholstery, Oak
21st Century and Contemporary English Modern Settees
Wool
20th Century French Modern Settees
Fabric
2010s Canadian Modern Settees
Steel
2010s Brazilian Modern Settees
Hardwood