Flying Duck

Art Historical Context

**Flying Duck**, created around 1939 by artist Malcolm Hackney, is vibrant watercolor, graphite, and colored pencil on paperboard, measuring 27.7 x 35.6 cm. Housed in the National Gallery Art's Index of American collection, this work exemplifies the meticulous documentation style of the era, capturing the dynamic form of a duck in mid-flight with precise lines and vivid hues that highlight feathers, motion, and naturalistic details. Produced as part of the Federal Art under the Works Progress Administration (WPA) during the Great Depression, the Index of American Design (1935–1942) commissioned artists like Hackney to create faithful reproductions of everyday American folk art and crafts. These renderings preserved vanishing traditions, from quilts to carvings, serving as a visual archive of the nation's cultural heritage amid economic hardship. Hackney's piece reflects the popularity of waterfowl motifs in American decorative arts, often seen in carved hunting decoys—a craft rooted in colonial times and vital to rural life. Its mixed-media technique allowed for accurate color matching and fine graphite underdrawing, making it both an artistic achievement and a historical record, inviting visitors to appreciate the ingenuity of everyday American makers.

About the Artist

Malcolm Hackney · 1914–1982

Malcolm Hackney (c. 1914–1982) was an American artist whose career briefly but impactfully intersected with the New Deal-era Works Progress Administration (WPA). Born in 1913, Hackney trained as a commercial artist and studied at the Yale Art School before joining the WPA Federal Art Project in New Haven, Connecticut, where he lived during the late 1930s. From 1938 to 1939, he contributed to the a...