Flask

Art Historical Context

This delicate rendering of a flask, created by artist John Dana around 1940, captures the simple elegance of early American craftsmanship. Measuring just 5¼ inches high in its original form, the flask is faithfully recorded here through watercolor and graphite on paperboard. The work belongs to the Index of American Design, a remarkable federal project that employed artists to document the nation’s decorative arts and everyday objects during the 1930s and 1940s. Dana’s precise technique highlights the flask’s contours and surface details, transforming a utilitarian object into a study of form...

About the Artist

John Dana

**John Dana** (American, active c. 1935) was a meticulous draftsman whose artistic legacy is inextricably linked to the Index of American Design, a landmark Works Progress Administration (WPA) project launched during the Great Depression to catalog and celebrate the nation's folk art and craftsmanship. Operating primarily out of the New York City project, Dana produced hundreds of precise renderin...