Literature:

The chair was modeled after the chairs he designed in 1894/5 for the dining room of his own house, 'Bloemenwerf', in the Brussels suburbs. It was van de Velde's first house that he entirely planned and designed, conceived as a total work of art. The famous 'Bloemenwerf' chair was offered by van de Velde until after 1900 in various wood types (maple, oak, mahogany) and several upholstery options (wickerwork, leather, fabric). Only a few examples were made in the very fine wood type Paduk. The striking characteristic of this chair is its linear, skeletal form and the lack of ornamentation. Comparable pieces for the leather-covered chairs can be found in the Metropolitan Museum, New York, and the Musée d'Orsay, Paris, among others. Provenance: Alexandre Delcommune, Belgian Congo, circa 1899; private apartment, Belgium; Brussels auction house.

Wolf D. Pecher, Henry van de Velde, vol. 1, Munich 1981, pp. 80, 83-86, 88, 90 f; Text p. 269; Exh. cat. Henry van de Velde, ein europäischer Künstler seiner Zeit, Klaus-Jürgen Sembach, Birgit Schulte (eds.), Karl Ernst Osthaus Museum, Cologne 1992, pp. 21-25; Exh. cat. Leidenschaft, Funktion und Schönheit, Thomas Föhl, Sabine Walter (eds.), Neues Museum Weimar, Weimar 2013, p. 156 ff., p. 171, p. 176.