Wedding Cake c. 1938

John Koehl made this watercolor and graphite drawing of a wedding cake sometime in the late 19th or early 20th century. Wedding cakes, like the ritual of marriage itself, are laden with symbolism; historically, they marked not just a union, but a transaction, a transfer of property, and the cementing of social status. This particular cake is encased in glass and surrounded by pale flowers. At its center we see a small, classical statue which could represent ideas about purity, love, and beauty. The whiteness of the cake, the statue, and the flowers speaks to the cultural idealization of virginity and the performance of innocence expected from women in the Victorian era. Koehl, who lived to be almost 140, left us with this delicate rendering which serves as a kind of time capsule. It brings to mind both the joy of celebration and the weight of expectations. The glass dome hints at both preservation and restriction.