Fauteuil en stoel 1895 - 1935

This is Léon Laroche’s 'Fauteuil en stoel', or 'Armchair and chair', and it’s rendered with simple graphic marks and flat colour washes of gold and pastel blue. I imagine Laroche carefully built up the image, shifting and emerging through subtle adjustments. I think of the artist and how it might have been to make this. This is a drawing that's about precision, control, and elegance; look at the line and how much it achieves. It's all about form and the object in space. With just enough information, it suggests the idea of the thing, but not the thing itself. There are no smudges, no fingerprints, nothing. Everything is neat and controlled. The intention communicates design, with the quality of surface and the physicality of the line shaping our experience of the drawing. This piece relates to Laroche’s wider practice of technical drawings and echoes the work of furniture designers. The design feels classical, as though rooted in conversations about furniture making and the exchange of ideas across time.