Untitled (Swan Decoy from Delaware)

Copied Unidentified, Untitled (Swan Decoy from Delaware), ca. 1920, carved wood, 9 × 41 1⁄8 × 7 3⁄4 in. (22.9 × 104.5 × 19.7 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, The Margaret Z. Robson Collection, Gift of John E. and Douglas O. Robson, 2016.38.79
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Artwork Details

Title
Untitled (Swan Decoy from Delaware)
Artist
Unidentified
Date
ca. 1920
Location
Dimensions
9 × 41 1⁄8 × 7 3⁄4 in. (22.9 × 104.5 × 19.7 cm)
Credit Line
The Margaret Z. Robson Collection, Gift of John E. and Douglas O. Robson
Mediums Description
carved wood
Classifications
Subjects
  • Animal — bird — swan
Object Number
2016.38.79
Linked Open Data
https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/2016.38.79

Artwork Description

The genre of “folk art,” objects and images made by working-class individuals, emerged in the early days of the American republic, with communally trained artisans or craftspeople and work that was often utilitarian or decorative in nature. In the early twentieth century, as folk art become more desirable among collectors, objects such as this swan decoy intersected with the clean, streamlined aesthetic of midcentury-modern art, shifting it from hunter’s lure to sculpture.
(We Are Made of Stories: Self-Taught Artists in the Robson Family Collection, 2022)

Exhibitions

Media - 2016.38.43R-V - SAAM-2016.38.43R-V_2 - 126225
We Are Made of Stories: Self-Taught Artists in the Robson Family Collection
July 1, 2022–March 26, 2023
Smithsonian American Art Museum
We Are Made of Stories: Self-Taught Artists in the Robson Family Collection traces the rise of self-taught artists in the twentieth century and examines how, despite wide-ranging societal, racial, and gender-based obstacles, their creativity and