This is a chair with a padded seat. It is veneered with Karelian birch, and the back is decorated with a lyre stylized to resemble a pair of swans.
The seat is rectangular, slightly widening towards the front. The back has a rectangular frame with a wide top rail that is decorated with a pediment. Both the rail and the pediment have a black outline.
The main feature of Empire furniture is the strict adherence of its shapes to the rules of classical architecture, such as the division of the piece’s volume into three sections: the base, the body, and the final top part. This is a common way of separating architecture into distinct segments both horizontally and vertically.
Furniture makers began to use Karelian birch in the 1790s. Such wood was usually decorated by artistic carving, painting, and inlay. The birch had a chatoyant texture saturated with spots and small brown curves. Thanks to its variety of yellow shades, this type of wood gave the feeling of coziness and softness to the interior.
The chair came to the museum from the Maryino estate in the Bronnitsy District some time after the revolution, when estates were nationalized.
At the end of the 18th century, the small village of Maryino, which nowadays belongs to the territory of the city of Bronnitsy not far from Moscow, was the property of Dormidont Sergeyevich Khlopov. Then it passed to the Fonvizin family.
Mikhail Alexandrovich Fonvizin (1788–1854) distinguished himself in the Battle of Austerlitz at the age of seventeen. He was decorated with the Order of Saint Anna, 4th class. Fonvizin also fought in the Patriotic War of 1812. He fought in many battles.
After the war, Mikhail Alexandrovich became a member of several secret societies. Even though he and his brother Ivan were not on the Senate Square during the 1825 Decembrist revolt, they, like all other Decembrists, were sent into exile. Ivan Alexandrovich, a retired colonel, was judged rather mildly. He was allowed to stay in the Maryino estate under police supervision.
However, Mikhail Alexandrovich himself was sentenced to hard labor and sent into exile in Siberia. His wife Natalya Dmitrievna Fonvizina, nee Apukhtina (1805–1869), went with him, leaving two children in Maryino in the care of her mother and Ivan Fonvizin.
Mikhail Alexandrovich was one of the first to be allowed to return from exile in Siberia. Having arrived in Maryino in 1853, he found that neither his sons, nor his brother were alive anymore. Mikhail Fonvizin was granted permission to stay in his estate and raised two adopted children.
Mikhail Alexandrovich had less than a year left to live after returning from hard labor. He was buried in the Bronnitsy, on Sobornaya Square.
The seat is rectangular, slightly widening towards the front. The back has a rectangular frame with a wide top rail that is decorated with a pediment. Both the rail and the pediment have a black outline.
The main feature of Empire furniture is the strict adherence of its shapes to the rules of classical architecture, such as the division of the piece’s volume into three sections: the base, the body, and the final top part. This is a common way of separating architecture into distinct segments both horizontally and vertically.
Furniture makers began to use Karelian birch in the 1790s. Such wood was usually decorated by artistic carving, painting, and inlay. The birch had a chatoyant texture saturated with spots and small brown curves. Thanks to its variety of yellow shades, this type of wood gave the feeling of coziness and softness to the interior.
The chair came to the museum from the Maryino estate in the Bronnitsy District some time after the revolution, when estates were nationalized.
At the end of the 18th century, the small village of Maryino, which nowadays belongs to the territory of the city of Bronnitsy not far from Moscow, was the property of Dormidont Sergeyevich Khlopov. Then it passed to the Fonvizin family.
Mikhail Alexandrovich Fonvizin (1788–1854) distinguished himself in the Battle of Austerlitz at the age of seventeen. He was decorated with the Order of Saint Anna, 4th class. Fonvizin also fought in the Patriotic War of 1812. He fought in many battles.
After the war, Mikhail Alexandrovich became a member of several secret societies. Even though he and his brother Ivan were not on the Senate Square during the 1825 Decembrist revolt, they, like all other Decembrists, were sent into exile. Ivan Alexandrovich, a retired colonel, was judged rather mildly. He was allowed to stay in the Maryino estate under police supervision.
However, Mikhail Alexandrovich himself was sentenced to hard labor and sent into exile in Siberia. His wife Natalya Dmitrievna Fonvizina, nee Apukhtina (1805–1869), went with him, leaving two children in Maryino in the care of her mother and Ivan Fonvizin.
Mikhail Alexandrovich was one of the first to be allowed to return from exile in Siberia. Having arrived in Maryino in 1853, he found that neither his sons, nor his brother were alive anymore. Mikhail Fonvizin was granted permission to stay in his estate and raised two adopted children.
Mikhail Alexandrovich had less than a year left to live after returning from hard labor. He was buried in the Bronnitsy, on Sobornaya Square.
