Horse c. 1939

Selma Sandler’s ‘Horse’ is a small watercolour drawing on paper, of a child's toy. I love the colour, an understated muddy grey-brown, a kind of non-colour that feels just right. It must have taken Sandler a while to get it so nuanced. She's used this stippling effect – maybe a dry brush technique - to convey the texture of the toy, I wonder whether it was wood or fabric? It gives the horse this mottled appearance, like it's been out in the rain or maybe it's covered in a fine layer of dust, adding a sense of age and history to the object. It feels so still. I imagine Sandler sitting quietly, contemplating the horse, trying to capture its essence with each brushstroke, while the light falls delicately across its surface. You can see how much care she took, even down to the strands of the tail. I’m sure she’s aware of a tradition, but she is doing her own thing, slowly. It’s very personal. Sandler is inviting us to slow down too, and to really see.