Second Empire Style Furniture

There were plenty of high quality furnishings and fabrics.

Second empire style furniture. The empire style is an early nineteenth century design movement in architecture furniture other decorative arts and the visual arts representing the second phase of neoclassicism. Second empire furniture was found all over paris during sartre s time and still is and many of the drawing rooms and hotels of the era remained in place in the 1940s and still do. Chairs were elaborately upholstered with fringes tassels and expensive fabrics. The structure of chairs and sofas was usually entirely hidden by the upholstery or ornamented with copper shell or other decorative elements.

However the furniture remained highly decorative. It flourished between 1800 and 1815 during the consulate and the first french empire periods although its life span lasted until the late 1820s. During this period furniture makers drew indiscriminately from all previous periods and sources which resulted in an eclecticism that had considerable historicist charm and even inventive appeal. Napoleon iii style second empire baroque style second empire style also called napoleon iii second empire baroque architectural style that was dominant internationally during the second half of the 19th century.

This attention to form as well as function can be seen in intricately upholstered chairs with tassels fringes and luxurious fabrics. Style moderne art nouveau 1900 s. From france it spread into much of europe and the united states. The style originated in and takes its name from the rule of the emperor napoleon i in the first french em.

Ornamentation and decoration are the focus points of this period. Tapestry work on furniture was very much in style. Characteristics of the second empire style the top priority of napoleon iii style furniture was comfort. Comfort was the first priority of second empire furniture.

Sartre and his fellow left bank intellectuals were vocally rebelling against the conservative tendency in french politics philosophy and aesthetics. In a way the artistic codes of the napoleon iii style also called second empire style were presented at the exhibition of 1844 during the reign of louis philippe d orléans.