Side Chair 1937

Mario De Ferrante made this watercolor and graphite drawing of a side chair. It’s a seemingly simple image, but even a drawing of a chair can connect us to wider social and cultural contexts. De Ferrante was one of many artists employed by the Index of American Design, a New Deal project that sought to document American material culture during the 1930s and 40s. Artists like De Ferrante were tasked with creating detailed renderings of objects like furniture, textiles, and tools, preserving a record of American design traditions in a time of rapid industrialization. The chair itself, with its elegant curves and restrained ornamentation, reflects a desire to connect to earlier eras, perhaps speaking to a broader sense of nostalgia during the Great Depression. Understanding this drawing requires archival research into the Index of American Design, consideration of the economic conditions of the 1930s, and analysis of the chair's design in relation to earlier styles. Each of these resources would provide a more complete picture of the drawing’s cultural significance.