Kerosene Lantern 1939

Samuel Faigin made this watercolor of a kerosene lantern, and it's all about light, or the possibility of it. It’s like he’s trying to trap light on the page. I can almost feel the artist's hand, carefully layering those translucent washes, building up the form bit by bit. There’s a quietness in this piece, a stillness that makes you want to lean in closer. I wonder if Faigin was thinking about other painters while he was working on this. Maybe he was inspired by the early Impressionists, who were also trying to capture the fleeting effects of light and atmosphere. It's a quiet conversation between artists across time, each one building on what came before, adding their own voice to the mix. It's this conversation that keeps art alive, keeps it moving forward, even when it's just a simple lantern that sheds a little light on the world.