Skip Navigation

Child's Wheelbarrow

Decorative Arts and Design

On View: Decorative Art, 20th-Century Decorative Arts, 4th Floor

The child's wheelbarrow is based on a toy that Gerrit Rietveld made in 1923 for the son of J. J. P. Oud, the owner of the armchair also displayed here. The wheelbarrow exemplifies the stylistic characteristics of De Stijl: it is composed of elemental geometric forms—rectangular planes, elongated cylinders, and a disk for the wheel—painted in primary colors and made of inexpensive wood. Revived interest in Rietveld in the mid-twentieth century led to this later production of the wheelbarrow.

MEDIUM Wood. pigment, metal
  • Place Made: Netherlands
  • DATES designed 1923; made 1958
    DIMENSIONS 13 × 27 1/2 × 11 in. (33 × 69.9 × 27.9 cm) display measurement: 13 × 11 × 29 in. (33 × 27.9 × 73.7 cm)  (show scale)
    ACCESSION NUMBER 2001.87
    CREDIT LINE Marie Bernice Bitzer Fund
    CATALOGUE DESCRIPTION Large flat red wheel with two long white painted handle rods with black ends extending from axel that support main section of barrel with yellow painted triangular sides and black rectangular bottom.
    EXHIBITIONS
    MUSEUM LOCATION This item is on view in Decorative Art, 20th-Century Decorative Arts, 4th Floor
    CAPTION Gerrit Th. Rietveld (Dutch, 1888-1964). Child's Wheelbarrow, designed 1923; made 1958. Wood. pigment, metal, 13 × 27 1/2 × 11 in. (33 × 69.9 × 27.9 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Marie Bernice Bitzer Fund, 2001.87. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, CUR.2001.87_threequarter_back.jpg)
    IMAGE CUR.2001.87_threequarter_back.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2010
    "CUR" at the beginning of an image file name means that the image was created by a curatorial staff member. These study images may be digital point-and-shoot photographs, when we don\'t yet have high-quality studio photography, or they may be scans of older negatives, slides, or photographic prints, providing historical documentation of the object.
    RIGHTS STATEMENT Creative Commons-BY
    You may download and use Brooklyn Museum images of this three-dimensional work in accordance with a Creative Commons license. Fair use, as understood under the United States Copyright Act, may also apply. Please include caption information from this page and credit the Brooklyn Museum. If you need a high resolution file, please fill out our online application form (charges apply). For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org.
    RECORD COMPLETENESS
    Not every record you will find here is complete. More information is available for some works than for others, and some entries have been updated more recently. Records are frequently reviewed and revised, and we welcome any additional information you might have.
    Gerrit Th. Rietveld (Dutch, 1888-1964). <em>Child's Wheelbarrow</em>, designed 1923; made 1958. Wood. pigment, metal, 13 × 27 1/2 × 11 in. (33 × 69.9 × 27.9 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Marie Bernice Bitzer Fund, 2001.87. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, CUR.2001.87_threequarter_back.jpg)