Fire Screen
During the 1870s the New York firm of Herter Brothers produced some of the most sophisticated and technically refined furniture made anywhere in the world at that date. Although the firm is known to have made a considerable quantity of gilded furniture, this fire screen is one of only a few examples to survive in good condition. The painted and gilded embossed panel of birds and flowers was likely made in Japan.
Details
- Palette
-
Select a color to find related artworks.
- Dimensions
- overall: height 1.318 m, width 0.762 m, depth 0.583 m
- Origin
- America
- Department
- Decorative Art and Design
- Holding institution
- Cleveland Museum of Art
- Image provider
- cleveland-museum-of-art
- License
- CC0-1.0
- Credit
- The Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund
Art Genome Taxonomy
12 tags
Artistic Disciplines
-
Design Both · 99%
The museum classifies the object within Decorative Art and Design, and the image shows an integrated functional furnishing with an architectural frame, pictorial panel, and extensive ornament.
Subject Matter
-
Animals Both · 99%
The central panel visibly depicts a rooster and another bird, while the museum describes the panel as depicting birds and flowers.
-
Flora Both · 99%
Flowering branches, leaves, blossoms, and botanical ornament are prominent in the central panel and surrounding frame, and flowers are explicitly named in the catalog description.
Visual Qualities
-
Highly Ornamented Visual · 99%
The frame is densely covered with gilded ornament, relief floral decoration, patterned borders, profile panels, winged finials, garlands, and a geometric grille.
-
Symmetrical Visual · 98%
The object is organized around strong bilateral symmetry, with matching side supports, paired upper panels, balanced finials, and a centered pictorial field.
-
Patterns Visual · 97%
Floral and geometric motifs recur across the central panel, borders, upper frieze, garlands, and lower openwork grille.
Medium and Techniques
-
Relief Visual · 96%
Raised floral ornament and projecting decorative elements are visibly integrated into the frame, crest, upper central panel, and finials.
-
Embossed Paper Metadata · 98%
Embossed paper is explicitly listed among the materials, and the catalog describes the bird-and-flower panel as painted and gilded embossed material.
-
Gold Leaf and Gilding Metadata · 99%
The catalog explicitly identifies the wood and panels as gilded.
Time Periods
-
19th Century Art Metadata · 99%
The museum dates the fire screen to approximately 1878–80.
Geographic Regions
-
American Art Metadata · 99%
Herter Brothers is identified as American and the place of origin is listed as America.
Furniture and Lighting
-
Furniture Both · 99%
The catalog identifies the object as a fire screen and classifies it as furniture and woodwork; visually, it is a freestanding furnishing supported by four legs.
Source & rights
Herter Brothers (American). Fire Screen. Cleveland Museum of Art.