Dining Table and Six Side Chairs

In 1908, Frank Lloyd Wright began designing a home for engineer Frederick C. Robie and his family at 58th and Woodlawn, just a few blocks from the Smart Museum.  Typical of Wright's style, the Robie House's long horizontal forms are low to the ground and it is constructed of simple, natural materials. Conceiving his buildings as complete artworks, Wright also designed all of the home's furnishings, including this dining table and chairs, to complement the design of the building itself.  The attached lamps characterize Wright's designs from the period, combining two pieces of furniture in one unit, and the pattern of the leaded-glass lamps repeats a stylized wheat motif found in the windows throughout the house. The exaggerated thickness of the tabletop and its extension well beyond its vertical supports perhaps echoes the Robie House's long cantilevered roof. Similarly, the four upright lamp posts may reflect the verticality of the home's chimney.