Sofa c. 1937

Ferdinand Cartier made this drawing of a Sofa with pencil and watercolor, but we don't know exactly when. I wonder what Cartier was thinking when he made this; maybe he’d been commissioned by a furniture maker. I imagine him carefully choosing the green for the upholstery, playing with the light and shadow to give it a sense of depth. It reminds me a little of some of Hockney’s interiors - a quiet, slightly formal composition, yet rendered with a playful touch. It’s interesting how Cartier used thin washes of watercolor to create the illusion of texture, particularly in the fabric. You can almost feel the soft velvet under your fingers. The precision of the lines in the woodwork also adds to the sense of realism. It makes me think about how we artists are always referencing and responding to each other's work across time, adding our own spin.