Doll c. 1937

This watercolor entitled 'Doll' was painted by Helen Bronson, though we don’t know exactly when. What strikes me is the making on this paper – the fabric pattern, for instance. It is made up of dashes and marks that are not blended but left raw, and the way she’s let the pale underwashes shine through on the surface. It’s interesting to think about how the qualities of watercolor, its transparency and fluidity, must have been crucial to her in rendering the doll and its clothes. The way she has built up thin layers of color reminds me of the way fabric is woven, thread by thread. Look at the lines of blue that trim the brown patterned coat; they’re not perfectly straight, not perfectly filled in. They waver and wobble, and that's what gives the painting its charm. This kind of pattern-making reminds me a little of the work of Philip Guston, who like Bronson found ways of making the mundane feel monumental. What is clear is that the language of art is an open one and it’s the individuality of the artist that gives it its unique accent.