Andiron (one of pair) c. 1939

This is Hans Korsch’s drawing for an andiron, one of a pair, made with pencil and watercolor. I love the way that the artist seems to have been thinking aloud on the page. I wonder what Korsch was thinking as he made this drawing. There’s a tension between exactitude and invention. It’s technical drawing, but it also riffs on these clawed feet. He’s almost animating them with these ball-like toes, they look about ready to pounce. The drawing is flat, but he's trying to give the design depth through shading and the use of watercolor to give the brass a golden glow. I like to think of artists across time being in conversation with one another through the act of painting, or drawing, or designing. Each artist inspires the next, building on what has come before, riffing off an idea, and turning it into something new. It reminds us that making art is an ongoing process, always evolving and transforming.