Rush Holder with Candle Socket
c. 1937
Medium
watercolor, graphite, and colored pencil on paper
Dimensions
overall: 24.2 x 29.4 cm (9 1/2 x 11 9/16 in.)
Classification
Index of American Design
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Index of American Design
Accession Number
1943.8.12151
Art Historical Context
**Rush Holder with Candle Socket** by Wellington Blewett (c. 1937) captures a humble yet ingenious piece of early American folk craft—a rush holder adapted with a candle socket. These simple devices held rushlights, inexpensive wicks made from rushes dipped in animal fat, providing light in colonial homes before widespread candle use. Blewett's precise rendering in watercolor, graphite, and colored pencil on paper (24.2 x 29.4 cm) brings out the object's worn patina, wooden textures, and functional elegance, inviting viewers to appreciate everyday ingenuity. Created as part of the Index of Am...
About the Artist
Wellington Blewett
**Wellington Blewett (1875–1962)** was a Canadian-born American artist renowned for his meticulous watercolor renderings of everyday American folk objects. Active primarily in the late 1930s, Blewett contributed significantly to the Index of American Design, a Federal Art Project under the Works Progress Administration (WPA) that sought to document the nation's vernacular artistic heritage through...