Bottle c. 1936

Francis Law Durand’s ‘Bottle’ is made with watercolor and graphite on paper and its cool hues give it an ethereal quality. The image feels so considered, almost diagrammatic in its meticulous, soft rendering. I imagine the artist hunched over the paper, layering those translucent washes, building up tone with the graphite pencil. What was Durand thinking? Was this a design? Or a study of something already existing? Maybe Durand was considering mass production and the way an image can represent a common item. Notice how the colour palette gives the bottle its transparency, as though the form has emerged from water. I love how the details are not labored but suggestive. There’s so much conversation between artists across time, a constant exchange of ideas which triggers our creativity. It’s about embodied expression, embracing ambiguity, allowing for multiple interpretations beyond any fixed reading.