Freud Desk

SOLD

Ernst L. Freud (1892-1970)
Designed in 1929/30 for Dr. Fritz Michael, Berlin
Caucasian walnut
Three concealed drawers

Height” 29” 28” x 86.5” ( 7 feet 2.5 inches)

Ernst L. Freud (1892-1970) was the youngest son of Sigmund Freud and father of the painter Lucian Freud. He worked as an architect since 1920 in Berlin mostly on private Jewish commissions. He was one of the most renowned modern architects of the Weimar Republic, influenced by the Bauhaus style. In 1933 he immigrated to England, where he successfully re-established his architectural
practice, focusing on domestic architecture.

The desk was part of a large commission of 44 pieces for Dr. Fritz Michael. This desk is the only piece which the owner moved to England two years later.The Royal Institute of British Architects in London is in possession of the hundreds of drawings of Ernst Freud. Among them also designs for this desk.

Prov: Dr. Fritz Michael, Berlin, Brueckenallee 8, since 1933 England
Owned by family members until 2004

Prof. Volker M. Welter, professor at the State University of California in Santa Barbara, published only recently the drafts and designs of Ernst Freud.
He verified the authenticity of this desk.

Lit: Volker Welter, Ernst L. Freud – Domestic Architect, Arts in Exile in Britain 1933-1945. Politics and Cultural Identity, The Yearbook of the Research Center for German and Austrian Exile Studies,6,University of London, Amsterdam-New York, 2005, pp 201-237, p.233

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