Desk 1940

Harry Eisman made this "Desk," sometime in the twentieth century, give or take, and it’s rendered in watercolor and graphite. It’s hard to know what the actual colour of the desk is, but this imagining of it is done with some finesse, really. There’s a lot of emphasis on the surfaces of the wood. He's taken the time to show the wood grain, its subtle shifts in tone and direction. I find myself drawn to the legs, these beautifully rendered curves. It’s like he’s feeling his way around the object, trying to capture not just what it looks like, but its essence. There's a softness to the watercolour, a blending of tones that suggests an atmosphere, a feeling. It reminds me a bit of Charles Demuth, who also had a thing for everyday objects. But where Demuth's got that precision, Eisman's got this warmth, this almost palpable sense of touch. It's like he's inviting us to reach out and run our hands along the smooth surface. Art isn't about answers; it's about the questions we ask along the way.