Fauteuil en stoel 1895 - 1935

This is Léon Laroche’s, Fauteuil en stoel. We don't know exactly when it was made, but it is rendered in light strokes of graphite and coloured pencil on paper. It’s a study of furniture, a chair and couch. It is quite dream-like in its presentation. I can imagine Laroche at their table in Paris, designing the interiors of grand houses. They were probably thinking about the psychology of space, how shapes and colours play with perception. They use hatching to give depth to the furniture, to make them appear tactile and velvety. There is also a flatness here, as it’s a technical drawing to be sent off to a factory. There is something both comforting and alienating about its subdued palette, the way the objects don’t quite sit in the space. It reminds me of the work of Giorgio de Chirico, an Italian painter who explored similar themes of alienation and the uncanny. It also puts me in mind of the great Hockney. Painters are always riffing on one another, in an infinite game of creative call and response!