This is Drake’s dad pictured on the cover
of his 2017 album More Life.
This is French comedian Jacques Bodoin in
1969.
This is country star Larry Gatlin in 1979
and soul artist Al Green in 1972.
This is the British synthpop band, Heaven
17, in 1981.
These artists work span decades, genres, and
continents, but their album art had one thing
in common.
They were all sitting in the same exact chair.
And it wasn’t just them, this chair popped
up on album covers everywhere.
Now, you could easily chalk this up to being
one of many weird album cover trends over
the years.
But in the 1970s, when these album covers
were pretty much unavoidable,
they were actually following a photography
trope that was 100 years in the making.
Let’s start with this photograph of Charles
Darwin, the famed naturalist, relaxing in
his old age at his English home in 1880.
On this wicker chair.
At the turn of the 20th century, wicker furniture
was all the rage.
Its success was driven by the fact that breezy
open air spaces, like verandas and porches,
were in high demand.
This was long before homes were air conditioned,
and when the summer came around, no one in
their right mind - and with a decent amount
of money - wanted to overheat.
This June 1914 guide on “How to have a cool
house” suggests
replacing walls with curtains, building sleeping
porches,
and filling the entire living space with wicker
furniture.
In short, “bring summer into the house.”
Outside of the home, wicker was used in resort
hotels.
At the beach
and on ocean liners
and passenger planes.
And it wasn’t just furniture,
there were wicker baby carriages
and wheelchairs
and this….thing.
but perhaps its most lasting function
well, besides baskets
was its use in portrait photography.
Wicker was light and easy to move around,
and it was breathable, great for when hot
lights warmed the studio.
More importantly it could be woven into countless
eye-catching decorative forms.
Many of these designs - particularly this
ornate asymmetrical one -
were actually called photographer’s chairs,
or posing chairs.
From the late 1800s well into the 20th century,
no portrait was complete without a trusty
wicker chair.
Now these were everyday people - a young woman
a mother and child
A handy man and shoe polisher.
But just as often you’d see portraits of
powerful, influential people photographed
in wicker chairs - often in seemingly candid
positions.
Mark Twain
William K. Vanderbilt
Countless presidents...
Hanging out on their porches
The wicker chair, it seemed, was the superficial
equalizer.
It dressed up your average citizen
and made powerful figures seem approachable.
And the styles changed along with trends.
While many were designed in the US and Europe,
a few incredibly popular models came from
Asia.
Those pieces were recognizable by their hour-glass
shaped bottom.
And if you opened a magazine or newspaper
by 1920, one particular style captured people’s
attention - the peacock chair.
Its hour-glass shape morphed into a large
throne like back.
It was often described as “picturesque”
“elegant” and “majestic”
By the 1920s, the peacock chair took center
stage in ads for summer home furniture,
And when the burgeoning film industry was
producing it’s first crop of movie stars,
it was a natural fit for portrait photography.
But let’s backtrack for a second
to one of the earliest photographs of the
chair I could find - it’s not of a movie
star.
It’s a portrait of a mother with her child,
published around 1914.
It’s titled “Jailbird in a peacock chair.”
This woman was a prisoner - serving life for
killing her husband.
And it was likely taken at Bilibid Prison
in the Philippines.
At the time the photo was taken, the Philippines
were under US rule, and American tourists
were visiting the islands by the boatloads.
Bilibid Prison was an unlikely attraction
- not only did it serve as a jail — it was
also a manufacturing facility.
Equipped with its own sales department for
shoppers to pursue.
This 1913 write up from an American tourist
describes the place and mentions the infamous
chair: “We are familiar with the queer shaped
chair made of rattan called by some “Peacock
chair”... it is made at Bilibid Prison.”
And a 1916 Vogue article about “Shopping
in the Far East” says a stop at the prison
is a must.
This nameless prisoner likely took part in
making those chairs.
She wasn’t famous or a powerful figure — but
sitting in the chair transformed her into
something regal.
By the 1960s dozens of iconic figures had
posed with that same chair.
Poets, writers, presidents,
Famed actresses.
The chair appeared in television and film
Like in My Fair Lady, which was set during
the turn of the 20th century.
Cecil Beaton, the set designer for the film,
was obsessed with wicker furniture.
This picture of Marilyn Monroe?
He took it.
In the 1960s, album cover designers picked
up on the trend.
And over the next two decades, portraits of
artists in the peacock chair peristed.
These covers can be broken up into a few categories.
One I like to call the casual leg.
There’s the close up.
And the group shot.
For this one, the person is just randomly
in an open field.
And finally, there’s this one.
Best represented by Funkadelic’s 1979 album
“Uncle Jam Wants You” which references
two specific things.
The “Uncle Sam Wants” you Army recruitment
poster
And this photo of Black Panther Party co-founder
and leader, Huey Newton sitting in the peacock
chair.
In 1967 when that photo was taken - it immediately
became a visual representation of the Black
Power movement.
And the chair took on a whole new meaning.
It showed up at Black Panther meetings and
rallies, even when Newton couldn’t.
It took up residence, in all it’s glory
at the center of the stage.
While most album covers with the peacock chair
drew their inspiration from the casual glamour
of mid-century celebrity portraits
Some artists saw it as an assertion of their
cultural power — even today that’s one
of this chair’s most lasting legacies.
The peacock chair album cover petered out
in the 1980s and was replaced by more minimalist
and intimate portraits of people.
But it remains one of the most referenced
chairs in photography - perhaps because it
makes everyone sitting in it look really cool.
