Arm Chair 1935 - 1942

Curator: Herbert Marsh, it seems, turned his artistic hand to the humblest of subjects sometimes. This lovely, detailed watercolor and pencil sketch is called “Arm Chair” and was made sometime between 1935 and 1942. Editor: There’s a gentleness to it. And, to me, a certain sadness too. The muted reds, the loneliness of the chair sitting there… I keep expecting someone to walk into frame. Curator: It’s true; it's an empty stage. The detail here speaks volumes, doesn’t it? The precision in depicting the chair's structure, and also the texture in the seat—must have required a good deal of focused labor. One almost feels the hand of the maker involved in upholstery, the carver in wood, present in the final illustration of form. Editor: Precisely. You can almost imagine Marsh considering this design in a world on the cusp of massive change. Is it escapism, nostalgia? The chair almost feels like a yearning. This piece to me seems less about furniture, and more about the human need to surround ourselves with… what? Something comforting. Curator: Comfort or perhaps a vestige of lost traditions. He almost meticulously recorded not just the object, but the details, as seen from that partial study sketched above. One wonders if this design might speak towards issues about the economics surrounding furniture production itself – or more widely – around “decorative art.” Was it for mass-production maybe? Editor: That detail gives the artwork itself some breath too. More to the object. But I am touched particularly by the coloring: a delicate use of watercolor to pick out both light and shade...It brings a weightless, dreamlike, quality… not simply like an inventory sketch for some production run. This is also a celebration—or the ghost of celebration, depending on one’s mood. Curator: True, an element of hope perhaps or that longing perhaps also reminds us now. Looking back as this chair reminds, of our changing values, desires and, indeed the materials around us during all such challenging times. Editor: It’s left me contemplating things – comfort and loneliness as well. An artwork does it for me.