Doll c. 1936

Jane Iverson made this drawing of a doll using watercolour on paper; it's a gentle, muted palette, very delicate, floating. I wonder if she painted this from life? I imagine she set the doll on a table and stared and stared. There's an obsessive quality about the piece; those gentle blues and pinks which build the volume of the dress are so repetitive, like she's really trying to grasp something. It's a fascinating drawing; the doll is both there and not there. It's not quite photorealism, but Iverson's really trying to get at the essence of this object; she is feeling her way through it. I like the flatness of the doll's face, and the way her body disappears into the dress. Iverson makes no attempt to create a realistic 3D form, which is interesting, like she's more interested in the feeling of the doll than the actual thing. It reminds me of some of the early modernist portraits where artists were trying to grasp something beyond the surface appearance of their sitters. Painting is always a conversation; we're all talking to each other across time.