Four Chairs (Perspective sketch)
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
American, born Germany. 1886–1969
1930s
A pencil-on-paper sketch in which Mies van der Rohe rapidly experiments with chair profiles and structural ideas, testing proportions and side-view perspectives for seating designs.
What strikes you is the economy of graphite: a few crisply rendered side silhouettes sit beside lighter, gestural lines, conveying quick decisions and subtle shifts in form and support.
These working sketches show how Mies translated his austerely structural architectural approach into furniture, helping define modernist design’s emphasis on clarity, proportion, and the continuity between objects and architecture.
Medium
Pencil on paper
Dimensions
8 1/4 x 11 11/16" (21 x 29.7 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Mies van der Rohe Archive, gift of the architect
Accession
807.1974
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
