Pa. German Jar c. 1938

William L. Antrim made this watercolour painting of a Pennsylvania German jar some time between 1870 and 1920. The painting feels like a record of an object, but also a loving depiction of a handmade thing. I can imagine him carefully building up the image, starting perhaps with the basic rounded form, then moving onto the decoration. Those looping, swirling marks around the top of the jar feel really lively, don’t they? They remind me a little of Cy Twombly’s gestural lines, and how he managed to convey so much energy and movement with such simple marks. There’s a real push-pull in this painting between observation and feeling; and a joy in the handmade. Artists are always looking at each other, across time, borrowing and building on each other’s ideas. That’s how art evolves, through constant exchange and reinterpretation.