Jug c. 1938

Frank Fumagalli made this painting of a jug, maybe in the mid-20th century, with what looks like watercolor on paper. The jug is rendered with soft, muted browns and blues and the artist takes a direct, almost documentary, approach to the subject. I can imagine him carefully building up the tones, layer by layer. Fumagalli probably thought carefully about the lettering of the words, ‘John Havins’. The inscription feels both decorative and descriptive; the dark blue contrasting with the light brown surface. It makes me think of other self-taught artists, like Joseph Yoakum, who found beauty in everyday objects and landscapes, transforming them through a personal vision. There’s something quietly radical about focusing so intently on a single object. It shows how artists, across time, find inspiration in each other's work, building a kind of visual conversation that continues to this day.