Pitcher c. 1936

Henry Granet’s 'Pitcher' looks like it came into being through a soft, subtle accumulation of graphite. I wonder what it was like for Granet, patiently building up this vessel, one tiny stroke at a time? It is an unassuming drawing, yet the delicate hatching describes the form so beautifully! The smooth gradations give the pitcher a polished, reflective quality as the subtle modelling captures the way light might play across its surface. And did you see the small sketch in the lower left? It is almost as if Granet included it as a kind of signature, a shorthand version of the larger study. It reminds me that we are all in conversation with one another, looking and responding across time, each artist’s work building on the last. It’s a great thing, this act of drawing and painting: you make something, and then other people look at it.