Pa. German Jar 1936

This painting by Eugene Shellady shows a Pa. German Jar rendered in a palette of earthy browns and yellows. I imagine Shellady hunched over his work, squinting as he captures the jar's curves and the folksy floral designs adorning its surface. The brushwork is delicate and precise, building up the form of the jar with careful strokes. The texture almost feels matte, like gouache or tempera—totally different from a slick oil painting. The slightly wonky asymmetry and the way the light hits one side more than the other give it a real sense of depth. It almost feels like you could reach out and touch it. I think it is charming that the artist signs his name in green paint in the lower right corner. I wonder if Shellady was aware of artists like Giorgio Morandi, who also found endless inspiration in simple, everyday objects. It's funny how an artist can take something as mundane as a jar and turn it into a vessel for so much feeling and thought. We can see in it not just an object but a whole world of human experience.