ERIK CHAMBERT. Cabinet, AB Chamberts Möbelfabrik, Norrköping, 1945, white lacquered with painted decoration of Swedish summer flowers personally executed by Erik Chambert.

Linked leg stand in red beech with legs tapered downwards, cabinet with softly rounded ears, inside with shelves and drawers, signed Erik Chambert at the bottom edge of the right door, height 131,128 x 41 cm. PROVENANCE Purchased directly from Chambert, then within the family. EXHIBITED The cabinet was shown at an exhibition of arts and crafts at Nermans Konsthall, Norrköping in 1945. At the same exhibition, Chambert also showed the wallpaper Fridhemsbacken, with a very similar floral motif. The cabinet has since the exhibition received one of Chambert's slightly reworked leg position. HISTORY Erik Chambert was a versatile and changing professional. He was an artist, designer, furniture and interior designer — with a peculiar expression sometimes described as “human functionalism”. Perhaps it was due to his special ability to curiously take impressions of the trends of the time, but always managing to reformulate what he had seen into a highly personal style. It is clear that he today is considered one of the foremost Swedish designers of the 20th century, and occupies an obvious place alongside other contemporary greatnesses such as Josef Frank and Carl Malmsten. As the son of master carpenter Axel Chambert, Erik started his career in the family business AB Chamberts furniture factory in Norrköping, where he started working at just 16 years old. Four years later, he completed his cabinetmaking training with a journeyman exam in the form of a desk in birch and masur birch. His studies continued at the Högre konstindustriella skolan in Stockholm (today's Konstfack), where, thanks to his skills as a cabinetmaker, he was immediately able to start at the advanced level on the line for furniture architects. Chambert also undertook several study trips to Italy, England, France and Germany, during which, among other things, he came into contact early with the thinking of the Bauhaus School and the art direction Art Concret. After graduating in 1925, Chambert was employed in Otto Schulz's drawing office, where duties included making advertisements in the company's magazine BOET, and arranging signage in the firm's display floor. Chamberts major debut as a furniture architect occurred during the Stockholm Exhibition of 1930, where he furnished an apartment — designed by Kurt von Schmalensee who was then the new city architect in Norrköping — in a functionalist style. The Chamber's floor was well received by the press of the time, and in a letter written by Gregor Paulsson, the general commissioner of the exhibition (also the influential director of the Swedish Crafts Association), he expressed his appreciation: “As far as my personal opinion of the exhibition is concerned, I would like to say without reservation that it is one of the most successful in the whole exhibition. It is consistent with the spirit we wanted to achieve.” For Chambert, the exhibition marked a breakthrough, and over the next decade he also exhibited at the World's Exhibitions in Brussels (1935) Paris (1937) and New York (1939). Although Chamberlain's 1930s furniture was characterized by the austere and sober ideals of the time, he never fully subscribed to functionalism's advocacy of standardization and mass production. Quite the opposite. Chambert always prized craftsmanship, and all the furniture that left his family's furniture factory in Norrköping, where he served as artistic director, was handmade and characterized by high quality control and care. As the 1930s progressed, functionalism's almost ascetically stripped-down ideals softened and were replaced by a more permissive modernism, with lighter lines, livelier interiors, brighter colors, and a more appreciative approach to decor. In Chamberts' case, it meant that nature began to look its way into his furniture. Today, many people associate the floral-decorated cabinets from this time with Josef Frank's iconic Flora Cupboard, which is wallpapered with illustrations from Swedish Botany. However, already in the early 1930s, Chambert had cabinets dressed in burgeoning floral arrangements made in intarsia. During the 1940s, he began using the cabinets as artistic canvas, creating lush flower meadows with oil paint. Chambert had gained an interest in drawing and painting already during his studies, and over time he came to be a recognized visual artist. Stockholms Auktionsverk is proud to present one of Erik Chamberts unique hand-painted flower cabinets, which was first exhibited at Nermans konsthall in Norrköping in 1945. LITERATURE About Chamberts decorated furniture, see Festin, Bonnie, Sommaräng, Konkret och Harlekin: verk av Erik Chambert, Norrköpings stadsmuseum, Norrköping, 2015, pp. 63-72, sketch for the cabinet illustrated p. 29. About Chamberts furniture at the Stockholm Exhibition, see Eklund Nyström, Sigrid & Nyström, Bengt, Svenska möbler under femhundra år, Natur & kultur, Stockholm, 2008, p. 167. See also Dahlbäck Lutteman, Helena, Erik Chambert: konstnären som möbelskapare, Raster, Stockholm, 1992, p. 23ff., cabinet illustrated p. 32. The cabinet is depicted in Hedqvist, Hedvig, Björk, Christian, Ericson, Eric (ed.), Swedish modern, Orosdi-Back, Stockholm, 2018, p. 482. Has resale rights.