Jug 1935 - 1942

Charles Caseau made this painting of jugs and birds in watery blue paint, maybe in the middle of the 20th century. It has a kind of sampler quality, and like a page from a sketchbook. I can almost feel him trying to figure out how to capture the essence of a bird—the way its feathers ruffle, or the curve of its beak. He’s playing with variations, seeing how much he can suggest with just a few strokes. The jugs, they’re like stand-ins, empty vessels waiting to be filled, maybe with water, maybe with ideas. I bet Caseau was looking at folk art when he made this—stuff where the artist is free to experiment. You can see him borrowing motifs, like the leaves and branches and birds. It makes me wonder what other artists might have been looking at when they made something similar. This kind of free exchange is how painting grows and reinvents itself, and we start seeing in new ways.