Steeple Clock 1938

Francis Law Durand made this watercolor of a 'Steeple Clock'. The careful composition and form, with its vertical lines and symmetrical design, immediately draws our eyes upward. The clock's brown wooden frame and the intricate details of its face are rendered with precision, but it's the subtle interplay between representation and structure that captivates. Durand employs a semiotic language where the clock itself, as a signifier of time, meets cultural codes of domesticity, as suggested by the house depicted in the lower panel. Note how the geometric arrangement of the clock's steeple mirrors the roofline of the house below, creating a visual echo. This interplay destabilizes fixed notions of time by embedding it within a context of place and memory. In its totality, the work functions as a symbolic structure, inviting us to ponder the relationships between time, space, and representation, reminding us that meaning is always in flux.