Dining cabinet

Painters, furniture designers, carvers, and civic reformers, Arthur and Lucia Mathews were leaders of the Arts and Crafts movement in northern California. Arthur Mathews, trained as an architect and studied classical art in Paris, returned to San Francisco in 1889 to work as a painter, muralist, and art educator. He became director of the Mark Hopkins Institute of Art, where he met his wife Lucia. They established the Furniture Shop in San Francisco together to provide bespoke custom interiors and furnishings. Arthur Mathews, working with a small group of craftsmen, designed most of the furniture and accessories, while Lucia Mathews assisted with the design, supervised the color palette, and probably executed some of the painted decoration. The "artistic furniture" they produced is characterized by quality craftsmanship and small shop traditions. Their most unusual furniture known to survive are the pieces made for close friends and family such as the sideboard and lantern. Distinguished by the polychrome decoration, and carved details, it is a synthesis of Arts and Crafts ideals and historicism. Floral motifs are prevalent in the Lucia Mathews’ paintings and in the robust stylized hydrangeas on the sideboard are consistent with her work. They not only provide a decorative element but also a counterpoint to the almost Gothicized carved details on the legs. It also recalls the Mathews-designed frames for Arthur Mathews’ paintings. The lantern, by contrast, features painted decoration in a far more stylized, almost modern design, again, juxtaposed to historic architectural styles, in this case, looking to Classical sources—the lantern is almost a miniaturized model for a classical temple.