Fireplace (Cream Hill 1930

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pencil drawn

aged paper

toned paper

light pencil work

photo restoration

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pencil sketch

old engraving style

personal sketchbook

united-states

watercolour illustration

watercolor

"Fireplace (Cream Hill)," a 1930 woodcut by American artist Wanda Gág, captures a stark and minimalist vision of a fireplace. The artwork, currently held by the Minneapolis Institute of Art, depicts a fireplace in a darkened room, illuminated by a flickering fire and the glow of candlelight. The intricate details of the fireplace's ironwork and the simplified, almost abstract forms of the room create a sense of quiet intimacy and a touch of the eerie. Gág's distinctive style, influenced by folk art and her childhood in Minnesota, imbues the scene with a whimsical yet haunting quality, making the everyday object of a fireplace feel both familiar and mysterious.

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minneapolisinstituteofart about 1 year ago

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This fireplace was at the Connecticut country home of New York newspaperman Lewis Gannett (1891–1966). Wanda Gág had time to draw it in 1930 when Gannett lent her his house for the summer. Five different Gág siblings paid long visits, making this hearth— with its connotations of comfort and family—an especially potent subject. The knobby ironwork points to the folk-like quality in much of Gág’s work. It can be traced to her German-Bohemian childhood in New Ulm, Minnesota, which was filled with fairytales, folk legends, and old-world craftsmanship