Dinner Tray
c. 1937
Medium
watercolor and graphite on paperboard
Dimensions
overall: 23.1 x 30.1 cm (9 1/8 x 11 7/8 in.) Original IAD Object: 10 1/2" x 15 1/4"
Classification
Index of American Design
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Index of American Design
Accession Number
1943.8.7246
Art Historical Context
This watercolor and graphite rendering of a Dinner Tray, created around 1937 by Joseph Sudek, belongs to the Index of American Design collection at the National Gallery of Art. Produced on paperboard and measuring about 9 by 12 inches, it carefully records an original tray roughly 10½ by 15¼ inches. The Index, a Depression-era initiative of the Works Progress Administration’s Federal Art Project, hired artists to make precise visual records of American decorative arts, folk objects, and crafts so that the nation’s material heritage would not be lost. Sudek’s technique—watercolor for color and...
About the Artist
Joseph Sudek
Josef Sudek (1896–1976) was a Czech photographer widely regarded as one of the greatest photographers of the twentieth century, known for his poetic, intimate images of Prague and his mastery of light. Born in Kolín, Bohemia, he lost his right arm during World War I and turned to photography during his convalescence, studying at the State School of Graphic Arts in Prague from 1922 to 1924. Sudek ...