Joaquim Tenreiro, rocking chair

JOAQUIM TENREIRO (Melo, Gouveia, 1906 - Itapira, 1992).
Rocking chair, mid-twentieth century.
Brazilian rosewood. Cane back and seat.
One of Joaquim Tenreiro's inaugural creations when he founded his Langenbach & Tenreiro emporium in 1947.
Provenance: private collection in São Paolo, Brazil.
Exhibits sligthly wear consistent with age and use.
Measurements: 94 x 68 x 96 cm.

Conceived by Joaquim Tenreiro at the height of his career, after the founding in 1943 of the Langenbach & Tenreiro workshop in Rio de Janeiro, this rocking chair with curved back and fretwork is the germ of modern design in Brazil. The piece encapsulates the perfect synthesis of visual lightness and artisanal rigor, reflecting Tenreiro's duality as a master cabinetmaker and sculptor. His approach transcends conventional industrial design, treating each piece of furniture as a work of art where technical precision yields to an ethereal and genuinely Brazilian aesthetic.

Joaquim Tenreiro, of Portuguese origin, was one of the leading furniture designers and visual artists of the mid-20th century in Brazil. He was born into a family of cabinetmakers who, at the end of 1910, emigrated to Rio de Janeiro (Brazil). They returned to Portugal in 1914, and he worked with his father as a carpenter. Tenreiro returned to Brazil for good in 1928 and began working for the firm of Laubisch Hirth, among others. In the early 1940s, he was one of the first designers in Brazil to adapt European modernist style and functionalism to the furniture industry. His initial efforts, including in 1942 the light chairs (Poltrona Leve) for the residence of Francisco Inácio Peixoto, achieved considerable success, enabling him in 1943 to found his own firm, Langenbach & Tenreiro. One of his main clients was the Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer, who asked him for various commissions for his houses. Tenreiro developed his own style, taking advantage of the qualities of the country's wood and local woodworking techniques, both in wood and cane. His 1947 rocking chair (Cadeira de Embalo) is still in production. Tenreiro abandoned the furniture business in the late 1960s to concentrate his artistic activity on painting and sculpture, in which he had already begun to take an interest as a young man, when he attended drawing classes at the Portuguese Literary Lyceum and, later, at the Lyceum of Arts and Crafts in Rio de Janeiro. In 1931, he participated in the so-called Núcleo Bernardelli, of Brazilian modernism. In 1970 he was awarded Sculptor of the Year by the Paulista Association of Art Critics.