Candlestick

Art Historical Context

This watercolor and graphite drawing of a candlestick, created by Alfred Walbeck around 1937, captures a small household object with careful attention to form and detail. The original candlestick stood just 4½ inches high and 5 inches wide, while Walbeck’s rendering on paper measures about 11 by 9 inches, inviting close study of its shape and proportions. The work belongs to the Index of American Design at the National Gallery of Art, a collection of renderings that documented American decorative arts, crafts, and everyday objects. Produced in the late 1930s, these drawings served as a visual archive, preserving the appearance of items that might otherwise have been lost or overlooked. Walbeck employed watercolor to convey color and surface qualities, with graphite providing precise structural lines. The result is both an artistic record and a window into the modest yet thoughtfully designed objects that formed part of American material culture.