Marcel Breuer

MARCEL BREUER (France, 1949).
Pair of "Wassily" chairs, designed in 1925-1926.
Chrome tubular frame and cognac-colored natural leather.
Probably made by Gavina, Italy.
They show marks and patina from use.
Measurements: 73 x 79 x 68 cm (x2); 40 cm (seat height, x2).
Pair of chairs with chromed tubular structure and cognac-colored natural leather.The Wassily is a wide armchair with a light, sober and functional structure, based on chromed steel tubes that crisscross to support the upholstered elements (seat, backrest and armrests).
Marcel Breuer was a Hungarian architect and designer, one of the main masters of the Modern Movement, very interested in modular construction and simple forms. He studied at the Bauhaus in Weimar at the time it was directed by Walter Gropius, and later would take charge of the furniture workshop of this school. There he designed the B3 chair, later known as the Wassily chair, made in 1925, the first tubular steel chair in history, which combined the flexible conditions of this material with its ease of large-scale industrial production. Breuer would continue at the Bauhaus until 1928, when he settled in Berlin to devote himself to architecture. However, with the rise of Nazism he had to leave Germany, because of his Jewish origin, and moved first to England in 1933, and later to the United States, where he lived for the rest of his life, from 1937. Today his furniture designs are part of the most important collections in the world, including the MoMA in New York and the Victoria & Albert in London.