Hand Bottle Corker
c. 1940
Medium
watercolor, graphite, and colored pencil on paper
Dimensions
overall: 44.7 x 36.9 cm (17 5/8 x 14 1/2 in.)
Classification
Index of American Design
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Index of American Design
Accession Number
1943.8.9610
Art Historical Context
**Hand Bottle Corker** Ray Price (c. 1940) captures the humble ingenuity of American craftsmanship in a precise watercolor, graphite, and pencil rendering on paper (44.7 x 36.9 cm). This-media work belongs to the Index of American Design, a Art Project under the Works Progress Administration (WPA) from 1935 to 1942. During the Great Depression, artists like documented everyday objects, folk art, and tools to celebrate the nation's cultural heritage and skilled labor. The Index emphasized accurate, detailed depictions to preserve vanishing traditions, and Price's piece exemplifies this with it...
About the Artist
Ray Price
Ray Price was an American artist active around 1935, renowned for his meticulous watercolor renderings of everyday American objects and crafts. His oeuvre, comprising 88 works held in the National Gallery of Art collection, captures the functional beauty of vernacular items from the late 1930s through the late 1940s. Little is known about Price's early life or formal training, as biographical deta...