Horse Head Hitching Post 1935 - 1942

Ernest A. Towers, Jr. made this work "Horse Head Hitching Post" using graphite and watercolor. I love this hitching post! I can almost feel the crispness of the air and the weight of the horse reins looping through the metal ring. It must have taken him ages to hatch all those fine lines across the post. I imagine the artist squinting, peering closely at the real thing, trying to capture every little detail. You can see the column supporting the horse head, each tiny groove meticulously rendered. But it's the horse's eye that really gets me. It’s as if Towers is trying to capture the soul of the animal. Maybe he was a horse lover, or perhaps just fascinated by the play of light on its smooth coat. It's not just a picture of a hitching post. It’s a quiet meditation on a bygone era, when horses were part of the everyday. Towers is showing us the beauty in the ordinary, inviting us to slow down and really see the world around us.