Chest of Drawers c. 1939

Curator: Immediately, it gives me a very precise and clean feeling. I think it is due to the lines. Editor: Let's dive into this fascinating drawing, simply titled *Chest of Drawers*. It's attributed to Harry Eisman, dating from around 1939. Eisman employed watercolor and colored pencil for its rendering. Curator: The choice of materials – watercolor and colored pencil – are really intriguing here. We see this detailed rendition of what looks like a fine piece of furniture using materials more associated with sketching. I’m curious about the implications in Eisman’s practice, what it meant to create furniture with these medium at the time. Editor: Exactly, that's where things get interesting. Think about what kinds of drawing tools and the object being drawn suggests at this time. The chest represents the status of wealthy, white families in a time period when the rest of Americans struggled through the depression, whereas colored pencils and watercolors represent the desire to produce something artful despite their lack of resource. Curator: So, you see it almost as a political statement disguised as an aesthetic piece. That reading adds another layer of depth, placing the artwork within a broader narrative of social and political inequalities of the 1930s. What kind of an impact could have a piece like this in museums? Editor: Its presence certainly prompts us to examine ideas about the consumption of artwork at that time period, it encourages dialogue regarding who owns what. Curator: Definitely food for thought. Looking again at how Eisman has chosen to present his rendition in color. Perhaps that says even more about a yearning for refinement using crude supplies. Editor: Indeed. The politics of imagery were as subtle as they were pervasive. Curator: Thinking about the material process has given me a new sense of this piece and the socio-political forces present in this era. Editor: I completely agree, considering its possible impact on American history really offers unique insight into a depiction of that particular artwork.