William Penn Carving
c. 1938
Frances Lichten meticulously documents a piece of American folk history in this rendering of a wooden William Penn statue. The figure stands stiffly in classic Quaker attire—tricorn hat, long coat, and breeches—holding a hat in a gesture of polite greeting. Lichten uses rich, earthy browns to perfectly mimic the grain and solidity of carved wood, tricking the eye into seeing a 3D object on a flat page. Created around 1938, this work is part of the Index of American Design, a massive New Deal project that employed artists to record the nation's decorative heritage before it was lost to time.