Saying Grace 1920

Curator: Jessie Willcox Smith's 1920 watercolor and gouache, “Saying Grace,” depicts two children at a table with their heads bowed and hands clasped. It exudes a simple serenity, doesn't it? Editor: Yes, immediately. The way Smith captured the light reflecting on the faces, on the woven tablecloth—it's almost tactile. But tell me, what drew Smith to this seemingly commonplace scene? Curator: It speaks to something deep in the American psyche. Children in prayer trigger feelings of innocence, familial unity. Notice the bowls of food, likely warm cereal steaming upwards. Smith often returned to this theme of childhood rituals. Editor: That tablecloth especially arrests me: it looks hand-done, possibly homespun. You can see every square where a weft was lain across the warp, the imperfect texture creating soft shadows. Were textiles a recurring motif for Smith? Curator: Not per se, but domestic spaces and their furnishings definitely populate much of her art. She created numerous magazine illustrations, covers for "Good Housekeeping" to appeal to American families of this period. She had a knack for making them visually reassuring and culturally appropriate, almost idyllic. Editor: I'm curious about that large serving bowl in the middle. Considering Smith's success as an illustrator, this bowl takes on an additional symbolic resonance. It’s mass-produced, but positioned as something precious, something around which a family gathers. I wonder where Smith sourced such commonplace objects for still life staging… Curator: Perhaps objects she owned herself? The everyday raised to something significant, an act of visual alchemy through intimate portraiture. Editor: I think the humble quality of her tools matters too. Working primarily in watercolour gives a gentle softness that softens, idealizes perhaps, those stark lines of production or gendered domestic spheres. It invites touch. Curator: An interesting tension: high-art presentation, the softness you mention, applied to imagery intended for wide circulation and potentially mass reproduction. Ultimately, she distills cultural memories tied to home, faith, and belonging. Editor: Yes, the labor is hidden by the delicate beauty—all pointing towards ideas of stability, warmth, and perhaps, above all, idealized family values.