Cradle
c. 1941
Medium
watercolor, colored pencil, pen and ink, and graphite on paperboard
Dimensions
overall: 36.3 x 46.2 cm (14 5/16 x 18 3/16 in.) Original IAD Object: 37" x 22 3/4"
Classification
Index of American Design
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Index of American Design
Accession Number
1943.8.4907
Art Historical Context
**Cradle** by Archie Thompson, created around 1941, is a meticulous rendering from the Index of American Design (IAD), a landmark WPA-era project (1935–1942) that preserved America's folk art and crafts through artist-made drawings. This mixed-media work—watercolor, colored pencil, pen ink, and graphite on paperboard—capt the intricate details of a traditional cradle with precision and vibrancy, measuring 36.3 x 46.2 cm.'s technique blends fine-line drafting for structure with subtle color washes to evoke wood grains and finishes, highlighting the craftsmanship of everyday American objects. P...
About the Artist
Archie Thompson
Archie Thompson is an artist whose presence in museum collections, represented by a substantial body of recorded works, testifies to a productive career that the broader art-historical record has not yet fully documented. His dates and nationality remain unrecorded in the sources currently available, leaving the particular tradition and training context from which he emerged difficult to specify w...