Decanter and Stopper c. 1936

Edward White made this watercolor painting, Decanter and Stopper, sometime in the 20th century, and it's like a love letter to the color red. The way the color is applied, so thin in some parts and built up in others, you can really see how White was thinking through the act of painting. The color itself is pretty mesmerizing, isn't it? It's like staring into a ruby. And then there's the surface. The way the paint seems to pool and blend, especially around the base of the decanter, it almost glows. It reminds me of Morandi's bottles, the way they're not just still lifes, but these quiet meditations on light and color. You can almost feel White considering his subject, trying to capture that slippery quality of light as it passes through glass. Ultimately, it's not just a decanter, it's an experiment, and that's what makes it interesting.