The original chair was constructed of unstained beech wood and was not painted until the early 1920s. Fellow member of De Stijl and architect,
Bart van der Leck, saw his original model
and suggested that he add bright colours.
He built the new model of thinner wood and painted it entirely black with areas of primary colors attributed to De Stijl movement. The Museum of Modern Art houses the chair in its permanent collection. The red, blue and yellow colors were added around 1923. Red and Blue Chair by Gerrit Rietvelt 1 2 3 4 1. Bart van der Leck 2. Gerrit Rietvelt 3. Original Chair (Copy) 4. Red and Blue Chair Photo from MoMA
Rietvelt Joint A Rietveld joint, also called a Cartesian node in furniture-making, is an overlapping joint of three battens in the three orthogonal directions. It was a prominent feature in the Red and Blue Chair that was designed by Gerrit Rietveld. Fig.1 is a schematic depiction of a Rietveld joint. The three battens are shown in the primary colours red, blue and yellow, where the yellow batten is oriented orthogonal to the screen. The locations of the dowels are shown in gray; the dowel connecting the yellow batten to the blue batten is the third and final one. 1 2 4 3 5 2. Tabel by Rietvelt 3. Detail of the Chair 4. Back of the Chair 5. Front of the Chair