Desk
c. 1940
Medium
watercolor and graphite on paper
Classification
Index of American Design
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Index of American Design
Accession Number
1943.8.10358
Art Historical Context
Step into the world of American craftsmanship with *Desk*, a captivating watercolor and graphite rendering by Edna C. Rex, created around 1940. This delicate work on paper captures the elegant lines and intricate details of a classic American desk, showcasing Rex's skill in highlighting the object's form, wood grain, and hardware with precision and subtle color washes. As part of the Index of American Design—a groundbreaking Works Progress Administration (WPA project from the 1930s and 1940s—this artwork belongs to a vast collection of over 18,000 illustrations documenting everyday American o...
About the Artist
Edna C. Rex
Edna Crenshaw Rex was an American artist active in the late 1930s and around 1940, best known for her meticulous contributions to the Index of American Design, the federally funded visual survey of American decorative arts produced under the Works Progress Administration's Federal Art Project. Her full name — Edna Crenshaw Rex — appears in the National Gallery of Art's records, which holds the Ind...