Lowboy c. 1939

Curator: Oh, this watercolor piece makes me smile. It’s like looking at a stage set for tiny, elegant dramas. So self-contained and a little bit precious! Editor: This is “Lowboy,” drawn by Frank Wenger around 1939. It’s a precise rendering of, as the name suggests, a lowboy, or what we might call a dressing table today. Curator: I’m immediately drawn to the colours – all browns, greens and blues are carefully modulated to showcase different types of textures and woodwork techniques. And then those elegant legs! Like little dancing puppets. What’s your read on its historic setting? Editor: Well, beyond its creation date in the late 1930s, the lowboy itself points to a much earlier period, reflecting the enduring appeal of 18th-century furniture styles. During the depression era, a nostalgic look back was quite a common trend in art and design. Curator: Nostalgia, right? The desire to remember the “good old days”? Though this lowboy would only suit the bedroom of the wealthiest among us in those depression times. But even looking at it now makes me think about private spaces and little personal treasures. The handles on the drawers could have such intricate, hidden carvings. Editor: It definitely conjures the intimate sphere of its owner and suggests a carefully curated world. The question for me, though, is what statement this sort of picture made to its contemporaries. The world teetered on the brink of war, societies underwent incredible political and economic pressure and Frank Wenger decided to celebrate an object that stands for upper-class domesticity. It's fascinating! Curator: Fascinating, indeed. Perhaps the careful details in the drawing, the quiet concentration it must have demanded from Wenger, provided some solace from all that turmoil. A little reminder of simple joys! Editor: So well said. A picture is a complex thing, as much about what is shown, as about what's left unseen!