Silver Teapot c. 1937

Hans Westendorff made this drawing of a Silver Teapot sometime between 1855 and 1995. Look at all the ornamentation! Can you imagine the focus it took to render such a complex design? Westendorff probably wasn’t thinking about pure expression in the way a painter might. Instead, the medium of drawing here is used for planning, for visualizing an object in precise detail before it’s actually constructed. But just because it’s a technical drawing, doesn’t mean it’s not full of imagination. It's interesting to think about the role of observation in both drawing and painting. Painters like to look and describe, and the act of drawing asks the artist to really see, to understand form and structure. You can see the influence of historical styles in Westendorff’s work. For Westendorff, drawing isn’t just about representation. It is an imaginative act and a process of deep looking and thinking.