Cast Iron Bank: Merry go Round c. 1940

Sarkis Erganian’s watercolor of a cast iron bank, painted at an unknown date, feels like a memory. The lines are both precise and a little soft, like something recalled but not perfectly. I imagine Erganian hunched over this, carefully rendering each detail of the merry-go-round. The iron filigree, the tiny figures on horseback, the suggestion of movement frozen in place. What was he thinking about? Childhood? Commerce? The ephemeral nature of joy? Look at the way he captures the light glinting off the metal, the subtle gradations of tone. The objectness of the iron seems to disappear. It’s so tender, like he’s not just depicting an object, but imbuing it with a sense of longing. He has this conversation between representation and feeling that a lot of artists are constantly battling with, and here he makes it look easy. What a beautiful, quiet moment he’s created here.