On the Sofa or The White Room
circa 1890-93
Pattern dominates
this interior space. Though the reclining dark-haired girl sleeps, the walls
and cushions and floor-boards flicker with animation. From the left, a cool linear
crimson saturates into dull whites and yellows along the sofa's fabric, and the
light pink material covering the girl's legs forms the shape of a large wilted
petal. The vertically-lined wallpaper behind simulates thin streaks of light,
like rays of the sun that seem to pour down at the end of a hot day. Below is
the wooden floor: its rectangular panes forming wide zig-zags across the ground
like great matching puzzle pieces, some of which are slightly dusty nearer the
stubby feet of the sofa. The natural grain and colour of the wood cast the
appearance of a miniature railway station, one that is seen from above with all
of its little trains parked in parallel slots aside one another.
To the right of the
picture stretches a surface of white wall. It shares similar vertical lines that
wash down its side like sheets of heavy rain, but they are more subtle than
those of the first. They alternate between bright white and light-blue and
-purple strips, much of which appear to be bathed in a strong block of late-day
sunlight. The dark brass handle of the door mirrors the dark shadow underneath
the sofa, as well as the girl's hair, chemise and the artist's cornered signature. Notice that without the five panels above the door handle the
contrasting halves of this scene would not be able to mingle; that without the
subtle continuation of the reddish-brown wallpaper into the white surface the
picture would seem un-balanced.
