Side Chair (one of four)

Art Historical Context

This exquisite rendering of a *Side Chair (one of four)* by Bernard Gussow, created around 1937, captures the elegance of American furniture design through delicate watercolor, colored pencil, graphite, and subtle heightening on paperboard. Measuring 29.2 x 22.7 cm, it meticulously documents an original chair standing 37½ inches high, 19 inches wide, and 18 inches deep—part of a coordinated set that reflects the refined craftsmanship of early American decorative arts. As a key work from the Index of American Design (IAD), a Federal Art Project under the Works Progress Administration (WPA), this piece belongs to a monumental effort from 1935 to 1942. Artists like Gussow produced over 15,000 precise, full-color studies to preserve and celebrate everyday American objects, from folk art to high-style furnishings, amid the Great Depression. Housed in the National Gallery of Art's collection, it highlights how such renderings safeguarded cultural heritage for future generations. Gussow's masterful techniques—layered pigments for rich textures, graphite for fine details, and heightening for luminous highlights—bring the chair's contours and wood grains to life, offering visitors a window into 18th- or 19th-century design traditions. A testament to artistic ingenuity in documentation, it invites us to appreciate the beauty in functional form.