Stage Backdrop 1935 - 1942

Perkins Harnly made this stage backdrop, a watercolor and graphite on paperboard, and, well, I can imagine him thinking about the theater, about the illusion of space and depth. I love the way Harnly created the architecture of a stage in a small drawing, complete with columns and archways and curtains, and a suggestion of a garden beyond. The paint is thin, which helps give it that airy feeling. There’s something so intimate about this – the delicacy of the drawing, the way he captures the light, that evokes a sense of nostalgia. I’m thinking about other painters, like Giorgio de Chirico, who also created these dreamlike architectural spaces. It's like a memory of a place, or a feeling, rather than a literal representation. Artists are always borrowing and building on each other’s ideas, and Harnly, wherever he is now, is part of that conversation.