Tin Tray
c. 1937
Medium
watercolor, graphite, and pen and ink on paper
Dimensions
overall: 29.7 x 39.7 cm (11 11/16 x 15 5/8 in.)
Classification
Index of American Design
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Index of American Design
Accession Number
1943.8.15251
Art Historical Context
**Tin Tray**, a meticulous rendering by Finnish-American artist Victor F. Mu around 1937, captures the humble elegance of an everyday American household object as part of the *Index of American Design*. under the Federal Art Project of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) during the Great Depression, work belongs to a vast WPA initiative (1935–1942) that employed artists to document the nation's folk art, crafts, and decorative traditions through precise, colorful illustrations. Muollo's depiction preserves the tray's simple yet charming form, likely a product of 19th-century tinsmithing, r...