Ontwerp voor een stoel c. 1906

Carel Adolph Lion Cachet made this design for a chair with pencil on paper, and the emphasis seems to be on the process of figuring things out. There are a few different views of the chair, and the hand-drawn lines give it a provisional, in-progress feel, rather than trying to be definitive. It’s a drawing of a thing, but it’s also a drawing about the process of making a thing. Look how the lines are not quite straight, not quite meeting, but kind of suggest the form in a loose, gestural way. That little decorative flourish on the left feels like a doodle, almost like the artist was thinking aloud with their pencil. You get the sense that Cachet was influenced by the Arts and Crafts movement, which was all about simplicity, functionality, and celebrating the handmade, like a contemporary re-interpretation of something medieval. It reminds me a little bit of William Morris, but with a more stripped-down, functional aesthetic. Art, in the end, is always a conversation.