Wharton Esherick, who trained as a fine art painter in Philadelphia, began building a stone studio for himself on a wooded hilltop in suburban Paoli, Pa., in 1926. He had been frustrated as a painter, feeling he could paint like others but not like himself. When he tried carving a few frames for his artwork, however, he saw right away that they were more distinctively his own.

Esherick was steeped in the arts—his friends were prominent writers, poets, artists, architects—and he produced wonderful woodcuts and carved wooden sculptures.

But his genius was perhaps best expressed in functional objects. His furniture is an amalgam of attractions. Its forms are fresh and fascinating, sometimes taking cues from the wood, as in the seats of his signature stools, and sometimes from repurposed parts, as in the chairs he made after buying a barrel of wagon wheels. Its surfaces, detailing, and materials make touching it irresistible. And in every piece its thoughtfulness about the user is unmistakable.

The best place to see his furniture is that stone studio, which became his residence and grew over the decades with the addition of living areas in a board-and-batten section and a stuccoed silo. The building has been a museum accepting small group tours since shortly after Esherick’s death in 1970, and many visitors have found entering it to be a life-altering experience.

The house itself is Esherick’s masterwork. In addition to containing many stunning pieces of his furniture and sculpture, the building bears the mark of its maker in every detail. From the floor of the dining area, made of scraps of wood of various species cut to organic shapes and fitted delightfully together; to the curve-fronted cabinets, lipped shelving, carved serving spoons in the kitchen; to the wooden coat pegs carved in the likeness of those who helped him build the studio, it is a holistic work of art and craft.

Esherick’s great accomplishment was to fuse art and craft in his furniture, to fold an artist’s elan of originality into the ambit of the maker of utilitarian things. In the process, he provided a template for the life and work of a designer-maker that has had a profound impact on the field, one person at a time.

Eye, hand, heart.
Esherick’s furniture is visually powerful, and its materials and contours always attract the touch, but its special power may rest in its open invitation to use.

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