Fireplace (Cream Hill, West Cornwall, Conn.)

This fireplace was at the Connecticut country home of New York newspaperman Lewis Gannett (1891–1966). Wanda Gág had time to draw it in 1930 when Gannett lent her his house for the summer. Five different Gág siblings paid long visits, making this hearth— with its connotations of comfort and family—an especially potent subject. The knobby ironwork points to the folk-like quality in much of Gág’s work. It can be traced to her German-Bohemian childhood in New Ulm, Minnesota, which was filled with fairytales, folk legends, and old-world craftsmanship