Rolling Pin
c. 1940
Medium
watercolor and graphite on paperboard
Dimensions
overall: 26.7 x 35.7 cm (10 1/2 x 14 1/16 in.)
Classification
Index of American Design
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Index of American Design
Accession Number
1943.8.13370
Art Historical Context
Edward L. Loper’s *Rolling Pin* (c. 1940) belongs to the Index of American Design, a remarkable New Deal initiative that employed hundreds of artists to create a visual archive of everyday American objects. Rendered in delicate watercolor and graphite on paperboard, the work captures a simple kitchen tool with quiet precision, transforming an ordinary household item into a record of American craft and domestic life. Measuring just over 10 by 14 inches, the drawing exemplifies the project’s goal of documenting vernacular design before such objects disappeared from daily use. The Index, active ...
About the Artist
Edward L. Loper
Edward Leroy Loper Sr. was born on April 7, 1916, in Wilmington, Delaware, to a poor family in the racially mixed Frogtown neighborhood, where he was raised primarily by his maternal grandmother. After graduating from Howard High School, the only secondary school available to African Americans in Delaware at the time, Loper received no formal artistic training initially but immersed himself in sel...