Hose Carriage c. 1937

Elmer G. Anderson made this "Hose Carriage" with pencil and watercolor wash, in tones of beige, brown, silver, and hints of pale blue. I can almost imagine the artist working at a table, carefully rendering each element of the carriage, from the large spoked wheels to the ornate details on top. You can tell they wanted to show the precision engineering and craftsmanship of this piece of fire-fighting history. I like how the watercolor is so thinly applied. It allows the texture of the paper to show through, giving the drawing a delicate, almost ghostly quality, like a memory of a machine. This makes me think of other artists who obsessively document the world around them, like Hilla and Helmut Becher with their photographs of industrial structures. It makes me wonder how many other artists were busy cataloging and preserving the past. It reminds us that art is not just about making new things, but also about remembering and honoring what came before.