Koloman Moser Armchair

Koloman Moser, ARMCHAIR. Produced by Prag-Rudniker for the Wiener Werstätte. Lacquered beechwood, basketwork 1903.

“Both the stringency of its geometrical forms and its reduced coloring are hallmarks of the Wiener Werkstätte.”

The basic shape of this armchair is a cube. Both the rigidity of its geometrical form and its reduced coloring are hallmarks of the Wiener Werkstätte, founded by Koloman Moser and architect Josef Hoffmann in 1903, the year the chair was designed. Produced at the Vienna wickerwork factory Prag-Rudniker, the chair was first presented at the XVIII Secession Exhibition, the famous Klimt retrospective held that year. Moser would later use armchairs of this design in the Purkersdorf Sanatorium, whose interior he designed in collaboration with the Wiener Werstätte. The sanatorium was commissioned in 1904-1905 by the industrialist Viktor Zuckerkandl and was built by Hoffmann. Together with its furniture, which is mostly lost today, the building is considered a chief example of the strict cubic-geometrical designs of the Viennese art nouveau.

Franz Smola
Curator of Collections
Leopold Museum, Vienna