Small Rush Bottom Chair
c. 1936
Medium
wash, graphite, and pen and ink on paper
Dimensions
overall: 30.5 x 22.9 cm (12 x 9 in.) Original IAD Object: 27 7/8"high; seat 16"wide, front; seat 12 3/4"back
Classification
Index of American Design
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Index of American Design
Accession Number
1943.8.4532
Art Historical Context
Behold the delicate rendering of *Small Rush Bottom Chair* by Edith Magnette, created around 1936. This intimate drawing, executed in wash, graphite, pen, and ink on paper (30.5 x 22.9 cm), captures the humble elegance of a traditional American vernacular chair—standing 27 7/8 inches high with a seat widening from 12 3/4 inches at the back to 16 inches at the front. Magnette's precise lines and subtle washes evoke the chair's sturdy Shaker-like simplicity, highlighting its woven rush seat and turned wooden elements. As part of the Index of American Design—a groundbreaking WPA Federal Art Proj...
About the Artist
Edith Magnette
Edith Magnette was an American artist who contributed to the Index of American Design during the late 1930s and early 1940s, one of the New Deal's most ambitious cultural programs. Operating under the Works Progress Administration's Federal Art Project, the Index employed artists across the United States to produce meticulous watercolor renderings of American decorative arts and material culture f...