Silver Beaker c. 1938

This lovely Silver Beaker was drawn by Holger Hansen. I imagine him carefully rendering the object, coaxing it into being with graphite on paper. There's something so satisfying about a still life, especially when it's rendered with such loving precision. What might Hansen have been thinking as he worked? Was he drawn to the way light catches the curves of the beaker, or perhaps the simple elegance of its form? It makes you think about Morandi, doesn’t it? His quiet, meditative paintings of bottles and jars, each one a world unto itself. You can see the delicate gradations of tone, how Hansen uses light and shadow to give the beaker weight and volume. You can almost feel the cool, smooth surface of the metal. It is as though he has distilled the very essence of this object onto the page. It's about making a little world, all of your own.