Rocking Chair 1939

This drawing of a rocking chair was made by Raymond Neumann, who was born in 1855, and it’s, well, a rocking chair! Neumann's use of watercolor makes this everyday object, the rocking chair, feel dreamlike. The way he lets the grain of the wood show through thin washes of paint makes me think about how we bring our own histories to what we see. The chair seems to float slightly on the page due to Neumann's delicate touch. Look closely, you can almost see the individual strokes that bring out the texture of the wood, which brings a quiet humanness to the piece. This rocking chair reminds me a bit of Fairfield Porter's paintings, in that Neumann has given us a humble slice of domestic life. Like Porter, he finds beauty in the mundane, which is something I always try to do in my own work. Art doesn't have to shout; sometimes, it whispers.