Tie-back
c. 1937
Medium
watercolor, graphite, and pen and ink on paperboard
Dimensions
overall: 28 x 23 cm (11 x 9 1/16 in.)
Classification
Index of American Design
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Index of American Design
Accession Number
1943.8.15099
Art Historical Context
**Tie-back** by Grace Halpin, created around 1937, captures the elegant simplicity of an everyday American decorative object—a curtain tie-back—through meticulous mixed-media techniques. Rendered in watercolor, graphite, and pen and ink on paperboard, this 28 x 23 cm work exemplifies the precision of the Index of American Design, a Federal Art Project under the Works Progress Administration (WPA). Launched in 1935 amid the Great Depression, the Index employed artists like Halpin to document the nation's folk, craft, and popular arts, producing over 15,000 detailed illustrations to celebrate an...
About the Artist
Grace Halpin
**Grace Halpin (1909–1978)** was an American artist best known for her meticulous contributions to the Index of American Design, a Federal Art Project under the Works Progress Administration (WPA) during the 1930s and 1940s. This ambitious initiative commissioned artists to create detailed renderings of everyday American folk and decorative arts, preserving cultural artifacts through watercolor an...