Bandbox Design (Rabbit Hunt) 1935 - 1942

This watercolor bandbox design, titled "Rabbit Hunt," features an anonymous artist's decorative approach to depicting a traditional hunting scene. The composition is structured horizontally with a frieze-like arrangement of elements against a solid yellow ground. The artist employs a limited palette of earth tones and muted reds, creating a sense of flatness and pattern rather than depth. Note how the trees are stylized, almost graphic, and evenly spaced to suggest rhythm. This patterning lends a sense of artifice to what would otherwise be a naturalistic scene. Even the figures, dogs, and horses are simplified into shapes that echo the overall decorative scheme. The "Rabbit Hunt" isn't so much a representation of an event, but an exercise in the visual language of design. The evenness, the repetition, the flattening of form – these elements function not to capture a moment, but to create an ornamental effect. It invites us to consider how even the most representational of subjects can be abstracted into pure form.