Mortar c. 1940

Walter Praefke made this painting of a mortar in the late 19th or early 20th century. I can almost feel him rendering this object, trying to capture the play of light across its surface. The mortar is depicted in earthy browns, which makes me wonder about the actual object, the texture of the wood. Look how he's marked the surface to suggest it is carved and aged. What was Praefke thinking as he made it? Was he interested in the object itself, or was it the perfect subject through which to explore line, tone, and form? Painters are constantly in dialogue, whether they know it or not. Praefke’s still life is a reminder that painting is not just about representation, it's a physical, embodied expression of feeling, a way of making sense of the world. It is an ongoing conversation across generations of artists.