Horse Head Hitching Post
1935/1942
Medium
watercolor, gouache, and graphite on paperboard
Dimensions
overall: 31.4 x 23.5 cm (12 3/8 x 9 1/4 in.)
Classification
Index of American Design
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Index of American Design
Accession Number
1943.8.11499
Art Historical Context
Welcome to the National Gallery of Art's of American folk art! Vincent P. Rosel's *Horse Head Hitching Post (1935/1942) captures the whimsical charm of a classic 19th-century American decorative object. These sturdy posts, often cast in iron or carved from wood, dotted urban streets and rural properties, serving as both functional tie-ups for horses and eye-catching yard ornaments. Rosel's detailed rendering highlights the lively, expressive horse head—its alert ears, flowing mane, and sturdy posture—evoking a bygone era of horse-drawn travel. Created as part of the Index of American Design, ...
About the Artist
Vincent P. Rosel
Vincent P. Rosel is an artist about whom very limited documentation survives in the accessible art historical record. His dates, nationality, artistic training, and the scope of his career have not been definitively established in scholarly sources, placing him among the many figures whose names appear in collection records but whose biographies remain to be recovered. Where works attributed to R...