The architect Josef Hoffmann designed this chair to reflect the rectangular structure and straight ceiling beams of the dining room in his building for the Purkersdorf Sanatorium, near Vienna. The sanatorium was founded around 1890 by the psychiatrist Richard von Krafft-Ebing to treat nervous disorders. The sanatorium’s environment of strict formal simplicity, with decoration limited to geometric patterns such as rows of windows or the circular perforations on this chair back, was thought to have a calming effect on patients. Hoffmann’s interest in rationalized geometric forms, first fully realized in his plans for Purkersdorf, became a hallmark of progressive Viennese design in the early 1900s. The chair was put into commercial production by Jacob & Josef Kohn in Vienna and appeared in the firm’s 1906 catalogue with an accompanying table, settee, and armchair.