Chair 1935 - 1942

This "Chair" was rendered in watercolor by an anonymous artist, and what strikes me is the way it makes the ordinary special, like a Fairfield Porter painting. I can imagine the artist, maybe someone who usually paints landscapes or portraits, deciding to really look at this chair. They probably noticed the light catching the velvet, or the way the carved wood creates shadows. There's a real tenderness in the way the details are rendered, like they want to understand how the light falls and how the material sits on the chair's surface. The painting isn’t just about showing what a chair looks like but about really seeing it, you know? It's almost like they're saying, "Even this everyday object is worthy of our attention, worthy of being noticed." I see echos of de Chirico, how he isolates objects and imbues them with a sense of mystery. Painting is a way of looking, after all, and a way of loving the world, one brushstroke at a time.