Door Knocker c. 1936

Edgar L. Pearce made this drawing of a Door Knocker with graphite and watercolor. Just imagine him there, pencil in hand, squinting to capture the light as it skims across the surface of this object. The way Pearce has rendered the knocker, with that shiny green enamel, you can almost feel the cool metal under your fingertips. He's really thought about how light defines form, using shadow and highlights to make it almost jump off the page. Maybe he was thinking about the play of light and shadow on a real door, and all the different ways it changes depending on the time of day. It reminds me of old architectural drawings, how they mix precision with a bit of artistic flair. It's like Pearce is saying, "Here's this object, but here's also how I see it, how I feel about it." And isn’t that what art is all about?