Handy Pump

George Joseph Mess

Printmakers George Jo and Evelynne Mess were an integral part of the Brown County, Indiana art community and, in 1942, they bought the forty acre John Followell farm, east of Nashville, Indiana. It was quite likely the source for this aquatint.

The farm had a barn and out-buildings, and a house that they described as "three rooms and a path". There was no electricity, plumbing or running water. Water would have to be pumped up from a well with a hand pump, such as this, and carried to the house. A real chore in the winter.

Mess originally addressed this subject eleven years earlier, in 1943, as a black and white aquatint, also titled "Handy Pump." This composition is one of only four color aquatints he attempted.