Cake Basket 1936

Mary Berner made this drawing of a cake basket, probably in 1926, using colored pencil. Look at the way she’s built up the form with layers and layers of delicate lines; it’s like she’s knitting the object into existence, one tiny stitch at a time. There’s a real tenderness in that process, a sense of care and attention. The texture of the paper peeks through, creating this shimmer that makes the basket almost seem to glow. The colors are subtle – a whisper of pink, a hint of green, a touch of blue – all working together to create this luminous, almost ethereal quality. It reminds me a little of Morandi’s still lifes, where everyday objects are transformed through the sheer act of looking and drawing. It’s a celebration of the ordinary, a reminder that beauty can be found in the simplest of things.