Robert Chester Smith (1912-1975) and Spanish furniture: An international look at types, materials and collections

Abstract

This essay presents a first analysis of an unpublished text by the art historian Robert Chester Smith (1912-1975), a key figure who, with George Kubler (1912-1996), shaped the study of Portuguese Baroque, Brazilian and colonial architecture in Latin America in the second half of the twentieth century. The text in question, European Furniture (Lisbon, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Biblioteca de Arte, ERCS 3, 72 doc), which is in the process of being edited and is partially described and discussed in this essay, allows us to appreciate Smith as a connoisseur of European furniture and decorative arts. In this essay I also suggest that Smith worked as a consultant for several American institutions and museums that played a significant role in the formation of Iberian art collections in the United States during the 20th century.