Creamer with Cover
c. 1939
Medium
watercolor and graphite on paper
Dimensions
overall: 26.2 x 18.8 cm (10 5/16 x 7 3/8 in.)
Classification
Index of American Design
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Index of American Design
Accession Number
1943.8.10531
Art Historical Context
Beverly Chichester's *Creamer with Cover*c. 1939) is a delicate watercolor and graphite rendering on paper, measuring 26.2 x 18.8 cm. Created as part of the Index of American Design (IAD), a groundbreaking WPA Federal Art Project, this work meticulously documents an everyday American artifact—a lidded creamer likely from the decorative arts tradition. Chichester's precise technique captures the object's form, texture, and subtle details, blending soft watercolor washes with sharp graphite lines to evoke the gleam of silver or porcelain. Launched in 1935 amid the Great Depression, the IAD empl...
About the Artist
Beverly Chichester
Beverly Chichester was an American artist active in the mid-1930s and early 1940s, whose contributions to the Index of American Design reveal an eye particularly drawn to the world of American toys, dolls, and childhood objects. Working in watercolor, gouache, colored pencil, and graphite on paperboard, Chichester produced a body of work distinguished by its delicacy of observation and its sympath...