Chaise Lounge

This chaise lounge is an important and highly significant piece designed by Marcel Breuer during his influential period in England (1935–1937). His work for the London-based design and architectural firm Isokon is the most recognizable of this period, with its bent plywood, free-form elements influenced by the designs of Swedish architect Alvar Aalto. But this chaise, designed for the 1936 Seven Architects Exhibition for Heal & Sons Department Store, proved to be more indicative and prototypical of Breuer’s later American work, which used plywood cutout forms. In this way Breuer continued his exploration of spatial form, moving from his earlier outlined forms to the more realized paneled shapes that would later influence the work of many American designers, most notably Frank Lloyd Wright.