Mahogany Chair with Card Rose Design on UpperWrung c. 1937

Florence Truelson made this watercolor of a mahogany chair, sometime in the first half of the 20th century. The palette here is pretty simple – earthy browns and a saturated teal, but the way Truelson teases out subtle variations in tone is really special. The texture is all in the layering. See how she builds up the darks in the wood grain with these delicate, almost transparent washes? And then, bam! That velvety, opaque cushion just pops. There's this tension between the precise linework defining the chair's form and the softer, more fluid application of color. I'm particularly drawn to the little rose detail at the top. It's a tiny flourish, but it speaks to this whole history of ornamentation and craft. It reminds me a bit of some of Fairfield Porter's domestic scenes, with that same quiet attention to the beauty of everyday objects. It all feels so present, like an ongoing conversation about seeing and feeling.