Materials from Patchwork Bedspread
c. 1936
Medium
watercolor, gouache, and graphite on paperboard
Dimensions
overall: 35.8 x 28 cm (14 1/8 x 11 in.)
Classification
Index of American Design
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Index of American Design
Accession Number
1943.8.997
Art Historical Context
**Materials from Patchwork Bed** by Frances Lichten, created around 1936, captures the humble beauty of American folk art through meticulous watercolor, gouache, graphite on paperboard. 14⅛ × 11 inches, this is part of the Index of American Design, a WPA Federal Art Project from the Great Depression era (1935–1942). Artists like Lichten rendered over 18,000 detailed studies of everyday objects—quilts, tools, furniture—to celebrate and preserve the nation's decorative heritage, ensuring these vernacular treasures weren't lost to time. Lichten's piece focuses on the fabrics and patterns of a pa...
About the Artist
Frances Lichten
Frances Lichten was born in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, in 1889. At fourteen she enrolled in the Pennsylvania Museum School of Industrial Art, where she studied design and interior decoration, while also pursuing landscape painting at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. After graduating she worked as a commercial artist for nearly a decade, building the technical foundation that would later serve...