Wall Painting c. 1939

This watercolour drawing is by Edward Jewett, and depicts a wall painting. Look at these lines! The careful arrangement of shapes—the borders, the columns, the central medallion—they feel almost architectural. I imagine Jewett hunched over this work, meticulously building up each layer of color, maybe even using a tiny brush. There’s a real sense of precision, right? The colours are pale and the lines are crisp. I wonder what kind of space Jewett was envisioning? Was it a real space? What kind of feeling was he hoping to evoke? You know, painting, especially a painting of a painting, is such a funny thing. It's like a copy of a copy, a dream within a dream. It makes you think about the layers of representation, the way we try to capture and hold onto things that are always slipping away. And it reminds me that, as artists, we're all in conversation with each other, borrowing and transforming ideas across time.