Burner and Kettle
1935/1942
Medium
graphite and watercolor on paper
Dimensions
overall: 22.6 x 30.5 cm (8 7/8 x 12 in.) Original IAD Object: 4 1/2" high; 6 1/2" in diameter
Classification
Index of American Design
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Index of American Design
Accession Number
1943.8.15009
Art Historical Context
Edith Magnette's *Burner and Kettle*1935/1942) is a delicate yet precise rendering of a modest American household object—a compact burner, likely an alcohol-fueled chafing device, topped with a kettle measuring just 4½ inches high and 6½ inches in. Created as part of the Federal Art Project's Index of American, this graphite and watercolor on paper work (22.6 × 30.5 cm) the everyday ingenuity of early 20th-century domestic tools, evoking a time when such portable items were essential for cooking or warming food in homes without modern appliances. The Index of American Design, launched during ...
About the Artist
Edith Magnette
Edith Magnette was an American artist who contributed to the Index of American Design during the late 1930s and early 1940s, one of the New Deal's most ambitious cultural programs. Operating under the Works Progress Administration's Federal Art Project, the Index employed artists across the United States to produce meticulous watercolor renderings of American decorative arts and material culture f...