Gold Brooch c. 1940

Isidore Steinberg made this drawing of a gold brooch with what looks like watercolour on paper. I’m drawn to the artist's interest in representing the object from multiple perspectives. It makes me think about perception and how we understand things through different angles. The artist may have been thinking about volume and form. It’s all about the challenge of translating a three-dimensional object onto a two-dimensional surface. The use of light and shadow, for instance, helps to give the brooch weight and depth. I can almost feel the texture of the gold. What’s especially cool is seeing how the artist used a monochromatic under drawing to map out the shapes and proportions before applying the final washes of color. It's like watching the painting come into being! This piece invites a sense of process, of working through seeing as a form of understanding, and then making.