Shaker Bonnet
c. 1936
Medium
watercolor and graphite on paper
Dimensions
overall: 34.8 x 39.1 cm (13 11/16 x 15 3/8 in.)
Classification
Index of American Design
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Index of American Design
Accession Number
1943.8.3928
Art Historical Context
Behold the delicate *Shaker Bonnet*, watercolor and graphite rendering by Alice Stearns, around 1936 as part of the Index of American Design. This WPA-era project commissioned artists across America to document the nation's folk art, crafts, and design traditions, preserving cultural heritage amid the Great Depression Stearns' precise depiction, measuring 34.8 x 39.1 cm, captures the bonnet's simple straw form with meticulous detail, highlighting its role in Shaker material culture. Shakers, a 19th-century religious community known for their austere yet elegant aesthetic, emphasized functiona...
About the Artist
Alice Stearns
Alice Stearns was an American artist active around 1935, renowned for her precise watercolor and gouache renderings of everyday American folk art objects. Working under the Works Progress Administration's (WPA) Federal Art Project, she contributed to the Index of American Design, a Depression-era initiative launched in 1935 to document the nation's crafts, decorative arts, and vernacular designs b...