Dear Fay...
Object Details
- Luce Center Label
- This simple scene of a young woman standing on a sloping grassy hill is made more complex by the long title that Jack Earl has engraved in it: "Dear Fay, I saw you in church Easter, and thought you looked real nice. If it is alright with you I would like to sit next to you next Sunday. Yours truly, Jack Earl." This piece portrays the artist's wife as a young girl, whom he met when her family moved to his town. Sitting at Fay's side is a dog, an animal that is often present in Earl’s ceramic scenes and that he sculpts to look more lifelike than the people.
- Luce Object Quote
- "Earl presents simple people doing ordinary things, namely the stuff of life of mainstream Middle America . . . [These are] . . . private people, who tell their innermost thoughts only to their intimate familiars, particularly their dogs." Geraldine Wonjno Kiefer, 1982
- Credit Line
- Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of KPMG Peat Marwick
- Data Source
- Smithsonian American Art Museum
- Date
- 1984
- Object number
- 1993.54.3
- Artist
- Jack Earl, born Uniopolis, OH 1934-died St. Marys, OH 2023
- Sitter
- unidentified
- Restrictions & Rights
- Usage conditions apply
- Type
- Decorative Arts-Ceramic
- Crafts
- Medium
- painted ceramic
- Dimensions
- 20 3/4 x 20 1/2 x 17 1/2 in. (52.7 x 52.1 x 44.5 cm)
- See more items in
- Smithsonian American Art Museum Collection
- Department
- Renwick Gallery
- On View
- Smithsonian American Art Museum, Luce Foundation Center, 4th Floor, 53B
- Smithsonian American Art Museum, Luce Foundation Center
- Smithsonian American Art Museum, Luce Foundation Center, 4th Floor
- Topic
- Animal\dog
- Landscape\tree\pine tree
- Portrait female\Fay
- Object\tool\water pump
- Record ID
- saam_1993.54.3
