Traveling Basket c. 1938

Vincent P. Rosel painted this travelling basket in watercolor on paper. Can you imagine sitting with this basket, translating its woven form, piece by piece, onto the page? It looks like a very humble, commonplace object, but you can tell the artist has savored the particularities of its form. What was it like for him to make this work, to build up the structure in layers? I can almost feel the weave of the basket in my hands, it seems so real. But Rosel has also made it abstract through color and form. This painting is like a portrait: it captures a moment in time, and preserves an object for posterity, in the manner of American folk art. It feels like a relative of the trompe l’oeil paintings of William Harnett. I wonder if those artists ever met! They're all connected in a great conversation across time. The artist gives us just enough information to spark our own imaginations.