Lilly Reich and The Barcelona Chair

There is a famous phrase: "The woman behind the throne…", alluding to that special lady that secretly, or in a subtle way, manages the strings of power.

In the world of Modernism and Mid Century Modern you can be right that there was a throne: Is the Barcelona Chair, and it was created by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe in the ends of the 1920s.

And if the Barcelona Chair is a throne, now is recognized that Lily Reich was the woman behind that throne. Let's dig a little into it.

Lilly Reich (1885 - 1947) was an outstanding German designer, with special skills on fabrics. textiles and women clothes.

At the time the Barcelona Collection was created, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe was sentimentally involved with Lilly Reich. Indeed, Lilly Reich was the Artistic Director of the German Pavilion of the Barcelona International Exposition of 1929, where the Barcelona Collection was released. Reich and van der Rohe worked together in many projects, and their relationship extended for at least ten years, until van der Rohe emigrated to the US in 1938.

Traditionally, van der Rohe was accredited as the mind behind the Barcelona Collection; but nowadays, times has evolved and society wants that each person gets the credit that really deserves for their creations. But beyond the testimony from people close to that couple in the day, there are some pretty interesting facts related to Lilly and Mies:

• Actually, Lilly Reich was in charge of the Artistic Production of the German Pavilion of the Barcelona International Exposition, but officially she was never accredited as creator of the chairs and benches along with van der Rohe.

• Its curious that Ludwig Mies van der Rohe only made furniture designs when he was in collaboration with Lilly Reich in the 1920s. He never made any known design on furniture before that decade, or after of this decade. Its rumored that the collaboration of Lilly was deeper than the use of textiles, but creativity in the very design of the chair, its shape and form.

• Due to the confusing times of the end of the World War II, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe an Lilly Reich never met again after the German designer established in America. In his last days as Director of the Bauhaus, van der Rohe tried to keep floating the legendary school, but the German nazi government was every time more reluctant to keep open the school, till the point where van der Rohe decided to close it and leave Germany. At he moment van der Rohe leave Germany, Lilly Reich became a guardian of the works of the Bauhaus and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, till her death in 1960.

• Lilly Roche managed to arrive to America in 1935, and she had a brief encounter with van der Rohe. Roche wanted to explore possibilities to continue working with the acclaimed Architect, but there wasn't an agreement, and Reich return to Germany. She kept as a guardian then of the Bauhaus and van der Rohe Legacy among their work as a teacher, till she died in 1946.

Was Lilly Reich the secret genius that inspired the Barcelona Chair? . Sure that she has a lot to do with it.

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