Bedroom, 1940 1935 - 1942

Perkins Harnly made this watercolour of a bedroom in 1940, and the colour is just so, so interesting. It's this faded pink that makes me think of old Hollywood, but it also feels really contemporary in its flatness. The whole piece is rendered with such detail, but it's a kind of detached detail, like he's cataloging everything in the room. Look at how he renders the light, it doesn't feel natural, but more like a stage set, or a dollhouse, and that pink just amplifies this sense of artifice. The shadows are there, but they don't quite convince you. Take that easel over there, for instance, it feels like it's been placed there, rather than existing as an integrated element of the room. Harnly's work reminds me of Fairfield Porter, another artist who found beauty in the everyday, but there's something stranger here, a kind of quiet unease.