Mirror Support - Lady Bust
c. 1941
Medium
watercolor, colored pencil, and graphite on paperboard
Dimensions
overall: 35.4 x 24.4 cm (13 15/16 x 9 5/8 in.) Original IAD Object: 4 9/16"high; 3 3/8"wide
Classification
Index of American Design
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Index of American Design
Accession Number
1943.8.5381
Art Historical Context
**Mirror Support - Lady Bust by Helen Bronson, around 1941, captures the delicate charm of an early American decorative object—a petite bust of a lady designed to support a mirror. Rendered in watercolor, colored pencil, and on paperboard (35.4 x 24.4 cm), this precise drawing highlights the bust's modest scale (original object: 4 9/16 x 3 3/8 inches) and elegant features, evoking the craftsmanship of colonial or Federal-era folk art. As part of the *Index of American Design* (IAD), a Works Progress Administration (WPA) project from 1935–1942, Bronson's work documents America's rich design he...
About the Artist
Helen Bronson
Helen Bronson is an artist whose biographical details remain largely undocumented in the scholarly record. No confirmed dates of birth or death have been established, and her nationality and the cultural context in which she worked have not been definitively identified. The works attributed to her suggest a period of activity that has attracted curatorial attention, but the fuller circumstances of...