Candle Stand

Art Historical Context

Step into the elegant simplicity of Paul Ward's *Candle Stand* (c. 1938), a meticulously rendered depiction of an early American folk furniture piece. Created in watercolor, colored pencil, graphite and pen and ink onboard (58.9 x 26 cm), this work captures a turned-wood candle stand standing 45 inches high with a 12½-inch crossbar. Such stands were essential in colonial households, providing portable illumination before widespread electricity, their slender forms embodying the practicality and craftsmanship of everyday life. This artwork is a prized example from the *Index of American Design*, a groundbreaking Federal Art Project under the Works Progress Administration (WPA) from 1935 to 1942. During the Great Depression, artists like Ward documented thousands of American objects—folk art, crafts, and design motifs—to celebrate and preserve the nation's cultural heritage. Ward's precise rendering highlights the stand's graceful proportions and subtle grain, reflecting regional woodworking traditions. The mixed-media technique allows for vibrant color washes in watercolor, fine details via colored pencil and ink, and structural outlines in graphite, blending artistry with scientific accuracy. Housed in the National Gallery of Art, it invites us to appreciate how humble household items encoded American ingenuity and aesthetic restraint.

About the Artist

Paul Ward · 1855–present

Paul Ward was an American artist who contributed to the Index of American Design during the New Deal era, creating detailed watercolor renderings of American decorative objects that are now held in the collection of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. His documented works include Lamp and Camphene Lamp, both rendered in watercolor and graphite on paperboard and created between 1935 and...