Jewel Box 1935 - 1942

Eleanor Gausser painted Jewel Box using watercolour and graphite on paper. Just imagine her, a painter looking at a box - a place for keeping precious things! I wonder what was in it, I wonder what it meant to her? Looking at the careful strokes, the detail. The colours are precise, but there is a personal element to them. The edges of the box feel very graphic. The wood grain is all lines, they feel like a print. I imagine her tracing the edges, trying to get it right. There’s something so appealing about the intimacy of this work. It feels so personal, so diaristic. Like she’s not just painting a box, but all the memories and associations it holds. I imagine her wondering what it contains, just as we are now. It reminds me of Elizabeth Murray's paintings of household objects. Artists are in an ongoing conversation. It’s like a secret language that unfolds over time.