Jug c. 1937

Yolande Delasser made this watercolour painting of a jug at an unknown date. The colour palette here is so understated, almost monochromatic, which brings my focus to the object itself. What is so interesting about this jug, about the act of capturing it in paint? Well, for one thing, the object has a history, somebody made it, maybe somebody used it. Then Yolande found it and memorialised it. I keep getting drawn back to the name etched onto the surface, P. Taulman. Was that the potter, the owner, or a lover? It is this type of mystery that makes art so appealing. There is also something so pleasing in the repetition of the circular floral motif beneath the name. This piece reminds me of some of Giorgio Morandi's still life paintings, those modest and quietly radical compositions with their muted colour palettes and humble subject matter.