Thonet chairs were admired by modern architects and designers for their elegantly simple, functional, undecorated forms. The chairs also conformed to early modernism’s insistence that furniture should be industrially produced and inexpensive. This model was described by the architect Le Corbusier (1887–1965) as “humble” yet “noble,” and included in his Pavillon de l’Esprit Nouveau at the 1925 International Exposition of Decorative Arts in Paris.