Milk Bucket

Art Historical Context

**Milk Bucket** by Jacob Gielens created in 1939, is delicate watercolor and graphite rendering on paperboard, measuring .5 x 27.9 cm (14 x 11 in.). This artwork captures a humble wooden milk—14 3/4 inches high, with a 7 1/2-inch top diameter and 8 1/2 bottom—evoking the sturdy craftsmanship of everyday American farm life. Part of the Gallery of Art's collection in the Index of American DesignDepartment: CG-W), it Gielens' precise technique, blending soft watercolor washes for wood grain textures and graphite for sharp outlines, bringing utilitarian objects to vivid life. The Index of American Design, a Federal Art Project under the Works Progress Administration (WPA) during the Great Depression, commissioned artists like Gielens to document folk art and design across the U.S. from 1935 to 1942. This effort preserved vanishing cultural artifacts amid economic hardship, celebrating regional traditions like New England coopering—barrel-making skills adapted for pails used in dairying. Gielens' work highlights the aesthetic beauty in functional forms, from the pail's swelling sides to its forged-iron bail handle, underscoring America's inventive spirit and handmade heritage. Today, **Milk Bucket** invites visitors to appreciate how ordinary tools embodied self-reliance and community, rendered with an artist's eye for enduring design. (198 words)