Circus Wagon Figure c. 1937

This watercolor and graphite work by Howard Weld captures a fairground figure, all gentle browns, tans, and creams, with soft charcoal shading. I can see the hand of the artist, lightly sketching and building up tone in layers; there’s a wonderful sense of volume in the figure’s draped clothing. Weld coaxes form out of the flat paper through his attentiveness to light and shadow. The texture is smooth but enlivened by the visible strokes of the pencil and brush. It’s not quite photorealism, more like a memory or a dream of a sculpture. You can see in her face Weld’s interest in capturing the expression and humanity of the figure. He manages to evoke a sense of monumentality despite the work’s relatively small scale, perhaps informed by his background as a painter of theatrical scenery. Paintings like this remind us that artists are always in conversation with each other, across different eras and styles, constantly reinterpreting and reimagining the world around them.