Doll with China Head 1935 - 1942

Mary Fitzgerald made this doll portrait with watercolor on paper, and what strikes me is how the doll’s dress dominates the image. It's a field of red with black polka dots, each one like a little rosette, carefully placed but not too perfect. The paint is thin, washy, almost like a dye, and the white of the paper peeks through in places, especially in the doll's pale arms and face. There's a directness in the mark-making, a kind of vulnerability in the way the artist allows the imperfections to show. I'm drawn to the tiny black shoes, so neatly rendered, a grounding element in this otherwise floaty composition. They seem so solid, so deliberate, compared to the rest of the image, as if Fitzgerald wanted to give this ethereal figure some kind of anchor. You see the same directness in other self-taught artists, like Bill Traylor, who also worked with simple materials and a clear vision. It's a reminder that art doesn't always need to be slick or polished to be powerful.