Three Fish in a Pan

* Nearly 20,000 images of artworks the museum believes to be in the public domain are available to download on this site. Other images may be protected by copyright and other intellectual property rights. By using any of these images you agree to LACMA's Terms of Use.

Three Fish in a Pan

United States, 1940
Drawings
Watercolor
Sheet: 22 1/4 × 30 1/2 in. (56.52 × 77.47 cm) Image: 22 1/4 × 30 1/2 in. (56.52 × 77.47 cm)
The California Watercolor Society Collection of Watercolor Paintings (55.34.13)
Not currently on public view

Curator Notes

In this painting Lewis took full advantage of the effects that could be achieved by the wet-into-wet watercolor technique....
In this painting Lewis took full advantage of the effects that could be achieved by the wet-into-wet watercolor technique. No element is sharply defined, not even the heavy dark lines of the plate or the outline of the tabletop; instead, lines bleed into washes. The painting cannot be clearly read and must be appreciated as a composition of abstract lines and colors. In the late nineteenth century WILLIAM M. CHASE glorified the glistening, pearly scales of fish in numerous still-life paintings. In this watercolor Lewis likewise extols the moist, opalescent surface of the fish by introducing different colors into small areas so that the fish seem to sparkle iridescently.
More...

Bibliography

  • Fort, Ilene Susan and Michael Quick.  American Art:  a Catalogue of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art Collection.  Los Angeles:  Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1991.