Blown Glass
1935/1942
Medium
watercolor, graphite, and gouache on paperboard
Dimensions
overall: 30.3 x 22.6 cm (11 15/16 x 8 7/8 in.)
Classification
Index of American Design
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Index of American Design
Accession Number
1943.8.17680
Art Historical Context
**Blown Glass** by Janet Riza, between 1935 and1942, is a watercolor, graphite, and gouache on paperboard, measuring 30.3 x .6 cm. Part of the National Gallery of's esteemed Index of American Design collection this work beautifully captures the elegance of traditional blown glass—a quintessential American craft rooted in colonial-era techniques brought by European immigrants and refined in places like New England and the Midwest. The Index of American Design was a landmark Works Progress Administration (WPA project during the Great Depression, employing artists to document the nation's folk a...
About the Artist
Janet Riza
Janet Riza was an American artist active during the 1930s and early 1940s, renowned for her meticulous contributions to the Index of American Design, a Works Progress Administration (WPA) Federal Art Project initiative launched amid the Great Depression to document America's rich heritage of decorative arts and crafts. Little is known about her early life or formal training, which remains sparsely...