Pipe c. 1936

Mabel Ritter made this pipe with watercolour and graphite on paper. You can see the hand of the artist so clearly in the smooth gradients of brown and black, giving the pipe it’s volume. There is a simplicity to the rendering, which creates a playful relationship between the object and it’s depiction. I love how the drawing has been arranged on the page, not quite still life, not quite technical drawing. The addition of the pipe accoutrements creates a playful and dynamic composition, and the light scumbling of watercolour gives an incredible luminosity to the whole work. This soft and subtle handling of watercolour is contrasted by the boldness of the inscription on the pipe itself; the graphic quality of the lettering reminiscent of sign painting. Ritter was a prolific artist, producing many similarly themed still life studies in watercolour, which remind me a little of the work of Florine Stettheimer. Like Stettheimer, Ritter's deceptively simple paintings contain a visual language that defies easy categorization and rewards slow looking.