Stockings

Art Historical Context

This watercolor rendering titled *Stockings* was created around 1937 by Ros Lane as part of the of American Design, a landmark New Deal initiative. Sponsored by the Works Progress Administration’s Federal Art Project, the Index employed artists nationwide to produce a comprehensive visual archive of American decorative arts and crafts spanning from colonial times to the late nineteenth century. Lane’s contribution captures everyday yet culturally significant objects like historic stockings, reflecting the project’s goal of documenting folk traditions and material heritage that might otherwise have been lost. The work dates to the depths of the Great Depression, when the Federal Art Project provided vital employment for artists while fostering national pride in American cultural identity. Hundreds of precise illustrations like this one were made of textiles, clothing, furniture, and household items held in museums and private collections. These renderings served dual purposes: they offered artists steady work and created an accessible educational resource that celebrated vernacular design over elite European influences. Executed in watercolor, graphite, and gouache on a modest sheet of paper measuring roughly 12 by 9 inches, the piece demonstrates the Index’s hallmark technique of combining transparent washes, opaque highlights, and fine linear drawing to achieve photographic accuracy. Now housed at the National Gallery of Art, *Stockings* invites viewers to appreciate both the craftsmanship of historic American textiles and the era’s innovative effort to preserve them through art.

About the Artist

Rosalia Lane · 1855–present

Rosalia Lane is an artist about whom the historical record preserves very limited information. No confirmed birth or death dates have been established, and the broader circumstances of her training, career, and artistic context remain poorly documented. The works associated with her name indicate a female practitioner whose activity places her within a tradition of accomplished women artists whose...