Pa. German Birth Certificatec. 1940
Albert Levone painted this in about 1940. It is now at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. More about this work
About this work
This is a painting of a colorful floral design with text. The artwork features stylized flowers in shades of red, green, and yellow scattered across the page. In the center, there is calligraphic text in varying boldness and fonts, likely in German. Two symmetrical bird-like figures with human faces and crowns are above the text. The piece combines imagery with artistic lettering in a style reminiscent of traditional Pennsylvania German fraktur. The artwork is bordered by a thin line, suggesting it's part of a larger artifact or document.
Description from the National Gallery of Art.
Albert Levone painted this in about 1940. It is now at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC.
How it was made
- Watercolour
- Pigment in gum arabic, thinned with water and laid in transparent washes. Nothing white is painted: the light is the paper showing through.
- Graphite
- Pencil. Graphite has been used for drawing since the 1500s; in 1795 Nicolas-Jacques Conté mixed it with clay, so its hardness could be graded.
American folk and design
The everyday art of early America, recorded in watercolour by the Index of American Design.
Rights and the museum’s record
Public domain. The National Gallery of Art has dedicated this image to the public domain under CC0, so anyone may copy, adapt and use it, for any purpose, without asking. Our prints and files are reproductions made from the museum’s image; the museum doesn’t endorse them.
- Object number
- 1943.8.3379
- Credit
- Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington
- Type
- Drawing
- Department
- Index of American Design
- Licence
- CC0 1.0 Universal
- Museum record
- See it on the museum’s site
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