Syrup Cruet
c. 1942
Medium
watercolor, graphite, and heightening on paperboard
Dimensions
overall: 25 x 35.5 cm (9 13/16 x 14 in.)
Classification
Index of American Design
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Index of American Design
Accession Number
1943.8.9583
Art Historical Context
Edward L. Loper’s *Syrup Cruet*c. 1942 is a meticulous study created for the Index of American Design, a Works Progress Administration project that employed artists to document the nation’s decorative arts heritage during the Great Depression. The drawing records a modest yet elegant glass syrup cruet, likely dating to the nineteenth century, preserving its form, proportions, and decorative details for future generations at a time when many such everyday objects were disappearing. Loper worked in watercolor, graphite, and heightening on paperboard, a combination that allowed him to capture th...
About the Artist
Edward L. Loper
Edward Leroy Loper Sr. was born on April 7, 1916, in Wilmington, Delaware, to a poor family in the racially mixed Frogtown neighborhood, where he was raised primarily by his maternal grandmother. After graduating from Howard High School, the only secondary school available to African Americans in Delaware at the time, Loper received no formal artistic training initially but immersed himself in sel...