[Black and white oil pastel drawing of dwellings]

Dublin Core

Title

[Black and white oil pastel drawing of dwellings]

Subject

Pastel drawing--United States--20th century. [LCSH]
Buildings in art [LCSH]

Description

Black and white oil pastel drawing on paper depicting two buildings. The buildings appear to be residential. The central building is light colored and features a stepped gable design. The exterior appears smooth and is perhaps stucco or adobe. This building looks to be two stories or a single story with an attic. There's a roughly rectangular object, taller than it is wide, near the apex of the front exterior wall. It's attached to the wall and extends up past the top of the wall. It could be a flush-mount light fixture or perhaps it's a decorative cover over an attic vent. Two windows--maybe glass block--with shutters flank the front door and three smaller, square, shutter-less windows are arranged in a triangular pattern on the next story of the building. The smaller windows are framed by trim on all sides and the lower two appear to be made of rectangular-shaped glass block. There's a wrought iron railing alongside either steps or a ramp (it's not discernible which) leading up to a landing by the front door, which is framed with wide trim all the way around. A coal chute door appears at the bottom of the steps or ramp, just left of, and slightly below, the left-most window on the lower floor. A fence runs in front of the two buildings, at the foreground of the drawing, and looks like a combination of wrought-iron and wood. There's a gap in the fence roughly in line with the right-most lower window of the light-colored building. On the far-right side of the drawing, on the side of the house, there appears to be an object, but it's unidentifiable; it could be a trash bin or part of a fence. A shaggy-barked tree--likely a Shagbark Hickory--grows in front of the second, darker building and reaches a height just above the rooftop of the building. This second building is left of the lighter-colored building and is darkly shaded. This building looks to be three stories tall and it appears only a portion of it is visible in the drawing. On the first floor there is a door surrounded by wide trim pieces and on the second floor there is another window in the same style as those flanking the door on the other building. Immediately above is a smaller window. Given the similarities of the windows' designs, it's possible that what appear to be two separate buildings are, in fact, actually one building as opposed to two, but it's difficult to say. The drawing is signed "J. Gillett" at the bottom of the drawing, on the right-hand side in a gap in the fence. The paper for the drawing has leftover adhesive from tape that is no longer there. This has caused the paper to discolor, leaving brown-colored areas in several places along each edge. The drawing has been stored folded for decades and there are four resulting creases that run width-wise across it, plus two pieces of tape along the top that used to hold the paper folded shut. There are some tears along the edges of the paper, in particular at the top near the tape.

Creator

Gillett, Janice

Date

1966-1973?

Rights

All rights held by Acacia Williams

Format

Medium: oil pastel on paper
Extent: 43 x 45.7 cm

Type

Physical object

Identifier

JG_0025

Citation

Gillett, Janice, “[Black and white oil pastel drawing of dwellings],” Wayne State University - School of Information Sciences, accessed March 28, 2024, https://waynestateu.omeka.net/items/show/777.