Bowl

Art Historical Context

This delicate watercolor and graphite rendering of a bowl, created around 1940 by John Dana, belongs to the Index of American Design, a remarkable federal project of the 1930s and 1940s. Sponsored under the Works Progress Administration, the Index aimed to document and preserve America’s rich tradition of decorative arts through precise, hand-rendered illustrations. Artists like Dana traveled across the country to capture everyday and antique objects, ensuring their designs would survive even if the originals did not. Measuring just under 12 by 9 inches, the work on paperboard showcases the careful technique required for the project: graphite first laid down the precise contours, while translucent watercolor washes built subtle color and texture. This combination allowed for both scientific accuracy and artistic sensitivity, recording the bowl’s form, pattern, and material qualities for future generations of designers, historians, and craftspeople. Today, such Index works at the National Gallery of Art offer a vivid window into American material culture of earlier centuries while celebrating the quiet artistry of the renderings themselves. They remind us how even humble household objects can carry stories of craftsmanship, regional taste, and national heritage.

About the Artist

John Dana · 1855–present

**John Dana** (American, active c. 1935) was a meticulous draftsman whose artistic legacy is inextricably linked to the Index of American Design, a landmark Works Progress Administration (WPA) project launched during the Great Depression to catalog and celebrate the nation's folk art and craftsmanship. Operating primarily out of the New York City project, Dana produced hundreds of precise renderin...