Jug c. 1936

Curator: Let's turn our attention to Charles Caseau’s "Jug," a watercolor and ink drawing on paper, created around 1936. What's your immediate response to this work? Editor: I'm struck by its simplicity, a humble jug rendered with such care. There's something very grounding about the subject matter and the muted tones. It evokes a sense of history, almost a longing for simpler times. Curator: I agree, the jug itself, beyond just being a utilitarian object, signals something about American material culture in the early 20th century. Notice how Caseau places a manufacturer’s mark beside the depiction of the jug. "D.Goodale, Hartford" reads the partial name. It speaks volumes about the context of industrial design meeting folk art tradition. Editor: Absolutely. The eagle motif on the jug itself is so telling. It immediately reads as an emblem of American identity and ingenuity, even before you know that the jug itself was made in Hartford. Did you know there are two renderings of that symbol in this painting? It’s repeated above to the left and feels deliberate. It certainly carries symbolic weight. What do you read from it? Curator: Well, it hints at the growing nationalism during that period. Consider too that Caseau painted this during the Depression. It is reasonable to assume a painting like this signaled resilience rooted in earlier eras and imagery. How interesting that the maker is memorialized in that added motif to the upper left as a “manufacturer's mark”. This would have lent an ordinary stoneware jug added symbolic value at that time, as now, of course. Editor: The layering of emblems is interesting here as it becomes not just a piece of earthenware, but a repository of collective memory. The artist seems particularly intrigued with the practice of layering. Think, first the drawing of the vessel then its emblem on that drawing plus the drawing of its brand statement. Curator: It’s almost a proto-Pop commentary, where everyday objects gain meaning through mass production and cultural associations. The jug as both container and symbol. Editor: Exactly. Thank you for allowing me to consider "Jug" in its cultural landscape, as you know, it causes me to wonder about its cultural persistence and relevance in our current times as well. Curator: And for me, pondering the symbolism of an object that is as simple as can be has a fresh appeal given the complexity of our age.