Candle Stand
c. 1938
Medium
watercolor, colored pencil, graphite, and pen and ink on paperboard
Dimensions
overall: 58.9 x 26 cm (23 3/16 x 10 1/4 in.) Original IAD Object: Crossbar 12 1/2"long. 45"high.
Classification
Index of American Design
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Index of American Design
Accession Number
1943.8.4053
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...
About the Artist
Paul Ward
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...