Empty Chair

1981

Not on view

The artist reflects on her own mortality in Empty Chair. A female figure in a matching red hat and shirt, a surrogate for the painter, gazes upon a younger version of herself that hovers over an empty chair suggesting absence and loss. The older incarnation turns away from a Tree of Life flanked by a peaceful menagerie. Rowe’s complicated symbolic language frees her drawings from any fixed meaning or singular interpretation, allowing the viewer to meditate on the narrative and metaphorical possibilities embedded within each piece.

Artwork Details

Title: Empty Chair
Artist: Nellie Mae Rowe (American, Fayetteville, Georgia 1900–1982 Smyrna, Georgia)
Date: 1981
Medium: Crayon, wax crayon and graphite with pastel on paper
Dimensions: 18 in. × 23 13/16 in. (45.7 × 60.5 cm)
Classification: Drawings
Credit Line: Gift of Souls Grown Deep Foundation from the William S. Arnett Collection, 2014
Object Number: 2014.548.32
Rights and Reproduction: © 2026 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art

More Artwork

By Nellie Mae Rowe

In the same medium

From the same time and place

Woman Scolding Her Companion, Nellie Mae Rowe American, Oil pastel, crayon, colored pencil, black porous-point pen, and graphite on board — Woman Scolding Her Companion
Nellie Mae Rowe
1981

Gray and Brass, John Sloan American, Oil on canvas, American — Gray and Brass
John Sloan
1907

3rd Study for Portrait of Chris Sickler, Jerome Witkin American, Oil pastel, wax crayon, and graphite on paper — 3rd Study for Portrait of Chris Sickler
Jerome Witkin
1974

Atlanta's Missing Children, Nellie Mae Rowe American, Commercial paint, crayon, oil pastel, graphite, ink marker, and cut and pasted paper on paperboard — Atlanta's Missing Children
Nellie Mae Rowe
1981

Necklace, Meta Overbeck American, Gold, emeralds, Montana sapphires, topazes, enamel, American — Necklace
Meta Overbeck
Louis C. Tiffany
Manufacturer Tiffany & Co.
ca. 1914–15

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