Josef Hoffmann

JOSEF HOFFMANN (Brtnice, Czech Republic, 1870 - Vienna, 1956).
Large Jugendstil sideboard; Vienna, ca. 1900.
Oak wood and bronze.
Measurements: 264 x 175 x 63 cm.
Part of a set, with lots 35047179, 35047196, 35047197 and 35047198.
Large sideboard in Jugendstil style designed by Josef Hoffmann, an outstanding architect and designer of the Viennese school of the late 19th and early 20th century. Made of oak wood, its structure is based on the interplay between open and closed spaces, and it is decorated with decorative bronze applications, mainly cut-out profile plates that recall the antique fittings of medieval furniture. It consists of two sections, the lower one closed and the upper one open, like a sideboard. In the lower section, with a sloping profile topped by a high cornice supported by curved corbels, there is a structure that also evokes oriental furniture, another of the great influences of modernism throughout Europe. This lower body has two doors and two drawers, all with smooth fronts, adorned with long hinges and decorative ironwork, with cut-out profiles with sinuous lines, which combine the modernist movement with a certain medieval character.
The upper body is organised in two levels, and is crowned by a curved lowered pediment, with refined lines in the Jugendstil style. Below is an open space, with a mirror at the back and two simple pillars on the fronts. Above, the central cupboard is flanked by open spaces, also with a mirror at the back, conceived as gazebos raised on pillars.
An architect and industrial designer, Josef Hoffmann studied at the Academy of Applied Arts in Vienna, where he was a pupil of Carl Freiherr von Hasenauer and Otto Wagner, whose theories of functional, modern architecture would profoundly influence his work. He won the Prix de Rome in 1895, and the following year he joined Wagner's office, collaborating with Olbrich on some projects for the Metropolitan. He established his own office in 1898, and taught at the School of Decorative Arts in Vienna between 1899 and 1936. He was also a founding member of the Viennese Secession. In 1900 he travelled to London, where he came into contact with the English school and discovered Mackintosh. On his return, he set up a workshop for the production of objects based on designs by Secession artists, and the Wiener Werkstätte was born, a workshop that had a great influence on 20th-century industrial design. By 1903, production began on an international scale. In the course of his life, Hoffmann produced a variety of projects for buildings and furnishings, and exhibited his creations all over the world. He is currently represented in the MAK and the Leopold Museum in Vienna, the Metropolitan and MoMA in New York, the Brohan in Berlin, the Courtauld Institute in London and the Victoria & Albert in London, among many others.