Wide Top Jug or Pitcher c. 1940

Carl Buergerniss made this drawing of a wide-topped jug, we don’t know exactly when or where, but it’s giving me major rustic vibes. I can just picture Buergerniss, maybe in his studio, carefully rendering this object – a jug with a frieze of a deer in the forest – building up the tones in layers. You can tell how the brown watercolor bleeds a little at the edges, giving it a soft, hazy effect. The artist probably wanted to capture every little detail of this thing, to see the highlights, the shadows, and the way the light catches on the surface. I see a deer – or maybe it’s a stag because it has antlers – and that makes me think of other makers and painters who found inspiration in decorative objects, too. The work is pretty quiet. It feels like a memory. I can only imagine him staring at it for hours, just trying to understand its form, its texture, and how it sits in space. And that act of looking, that deep, careful looking, is so much a part of painting – and it’s the foundation of all great art.