The Rocking Chair

A wicker rocking chair waits alone on the worn stone paving of a Catalan courtyard, painted in the early twentieth century by Pere Torné Esquius. Around it sit potted plants, climbing roses, and small trees clipped into neat green balls. Look up to the open window and you will find a vase of red flowers glowing against the shutters, while down in the shadowy doorway a little dog stretches out for a rest. The whole scene has a hushed, waiting quality, as though whoever was rocking in that chair has only just wandered off and will be back before long.

Torné Esquius made his name by celebrating the small, homey corners of life that usually go unnoticed. Gardens, quiet rooms, and cozy patios were his favorite subjects, and he rendered them with gentle, muted tones and simple flat shapes that give his work an almost storybook softness. Writers and poets adored him, among them the celebrated Catalan poet Joan Maragall, who admired the tender feeling of home that ran through his pictures. Nothing here shouts for attention, and that is rather the point. It is a modest, honest little painting about the comfort of an ordinary place.