Woman's Coat

Art Historical Context

This watercolor and graphite drawing, titled Woman's Coat, was created by Margaret Concha between 1935 and 1942 as part of the Index of American Design. The small-scale work on paper, measuring roughly 11 5/8 by 8 11/16 inches, belongs to a federal documentation project that employed artists to record American decorative arts, crafts, and everyday objects with remarkable precision. Concha’s rendering captures the form, texture, and details of a woman’s coat, preserving an example of historical American clothing for study and appreciation. The Index of American Design used watercolor for its ability to convey color, pattern, and surface qualities accurately, often combined with graphite underdrawing for structure and fine lines. These techniques turned functional items like garments into lasting visual records of design heritage during the 1930s and early 1940s. Rather than inventing scenes, the artists focused on faithful, almost scientific illustration that highlighted craftsmanship in textiles and fashion. Today the piece invites viewers to consider clothing as both practical object and cultural artifact. It reflects a broader effort to celebrate and archive America’s material past, showing how even a single coat can reveal stories of style, skill, and everyday life. Housed at the National Gallery of Art, it offers an intimate window into that documentary tradition.

About the Artist

Margaret Concha · 1897–1994

Margaret Concha is an artist whose life and career remain incompletely documented in the major scholarly literature on art history. No confirmed birth or death dates have been established, and details of her training, nationality, and primary working period are not reliably recorded in available sources. The works attributed to her suggest engagement with the visual traditions of her era, though ...