Sitzmaschine Model no. 670

Designer Josef Hoffmann (Austrian, 1870-1956)

Place of OriginAustria

DateDesigned in 1908, manufactured in 1914

Dimensions40 1/4 × 22 1/2 × 31 5/8 in. (102.2 × 57.2 × 80.3 cm)

MediumLaminated wood, solid beechwood, metal

ClassificationFurniture

Credit LineGift of William E. Levis, Florence Scott Libbey, E.E.MacCrone, George W. Ritter, and Mrs. Frank B. Shutts, by exchange

Object number

1992.5

On View

Toledo Museum of Art (2445 Monroe Street), Gallery, 03

Label TextJosef Hoffmann designed objects such as this bent-wood, adjustable-back Sitzmaschine (“machine for sitting in”) to be mass-produced. Yet the chair still speaks to the craftsmanship of pre-industrial design. Five wooden pegs on each side allow the sitter to adjust the rod that supports the back of the chair. This allows the sitter to easily move the chair from upright to completely reclined. The chair features the characteristic cutouts that pervade both Hoffmann’s architecture and furniture, providing a sense of lightness to the material heaviness of wood. The patterning of the cutouts as well as the curvature of the seat creates a lyrical rhythm that can be contrasted with Gerrit Rietveld’s Red/Blue Chair of 1918, also in this gallery. In 1903, Hoffmann co-founded the influential Wiener Werkstätte (Viennese Workshops), a community of painters, sculptors, architects, and decorative artists. Members of the group sought to re-infuse everyday objects with the beauty of good form and design, qualities Hoffmann and others believed were left behind with the replacement of handcrafts with mass-produced objects.