Servant's Bell 1935 - 1942

Manuel G. Runyan made this drawing of a Servant's Bell with brown and gold watercolor. I can imagine him, carefully mixing his paints, testing the tones to capture the metallic sheen and the aged patina of the bell. What must it have been like to make this image of an ordinary object? Runyan probably had the bell in front of him, studying its form, its shadows. It looks like he started with thin washes, layering colors to build up the form. Look how the light catches the curve of the bell. There's a sense of care and attention. There's something about the way he’s rendered the object, with such exactitude, that also reminds me of photorealism or the precise rendering of Pop art, like a Warhol screenprint, but, you know, slower. Artists are always looking, borrowing, and transforming the ideas of the past into something new. It's a never-ending conversation, each artwork adding a new voice.