Designs for Two Chairs 1841 - 1884

Editor: This is "Designs for Two Chairs," a watercolor and print from sometime between 1841 and 1884, created by Charles Hindley and Sons. They’re ever so slightly ridiculous! Pink and seafoam green armchairs, both with that plush, button-backed style. They feel almost like parodies of Victorian comfort. What do you make of these designs? Curator: Well, first off, "parodies" is an interesting word choice. Do you mean to say you see in these images, perhaps, the self-satisfaction of that bourgeois period? I wonder if it might just be an earnest desire to show the fashions that could grace the most privileged of households. Now, if I was picking out a drawing for my dream house, it'd have to be this! It speaks to a certain aspiration, doesn't it? Look at the precision of the rendering, the almost tender way the colours are applied – these aren't just chairs, they're fantasies of comfort and refinement. Tell me, what do those colours say to you? Editor: They’re kind of pastel-dreamy, a little saccharine. Makes me think of candy! I wouldn't want to live in a world only populated with those colours, I'd crave something more serious. Curator: Ha! Seriousness. I know that feeling all too well. Yet I sometimes feel this "sweetness" is the kind of fantasy that fuelled an age. Consider all that repressed emotion just below the surface during the Victorian era, this drawing provides the antidote. These chairs are an antidote to the drudgery of daily life and social expectations; little puffy escapes, aren't they? Editor: So, escapism materialized in furniture? That’s a good way to think about it. Curator: Exactly! Or... at least on paper! I see that the artist captured those pastel daydreams with gentle grace. This image really does let our own imaginations relax, and to remember our need for an occasional flight from reality. Editor: That’s made me see these pastel puffs in a completely new light. I will be mindful of an antidote, thank you!