Pewter Powder Flask c. 1939

George V. Vezolles made this Pewter Powder Flask with graphite and watercolor. Look at the way he uses hatching and cross-hatching to build up the form of the flask. It’s all about process. There’s a real sensitivity to the surface of the pewter, which, let’s face it, could be kinda dull. But the artist coaxes out the light, playing with gradations of gray to make it almost luminous. And notice how the metallic parts are rendered with these delicate washes of gold, suggesting the way light glances off a shiny surface. My eye keeps going back to those swirling, almost baroque details at the bottom. They’re so tactile, you can almost feel the weight of the metal, the cool smoothness of the surface. Vezolles’ careful attention to detail reminds me a bit of the meticulousness of some of the German Renaissance masters, like Dürer, who also had a thing for rendering metal objects with incredible precision. It’s a reminder that art is always in conversation with the past.