Peg Lamp c. 1937

Samuel O. Klein made this drawing of a Peg Lamp with graphite and watercolor. Look at the pale background and the precise lines! I imagine him, carefully sketching out the details, maybe even using a ruler to get those straight edges just right. And then the soft glow of the brass and glass, rendered in watercolor. You can almost feel the smooth, cool surface of the glass. I wonder if he thought about light a lot, as he worked on this drawing? Did he want to celebrate it? Did he spend hours in the studio trying to capture its essence? It reminds me that artists are always looking, always trying to figure out how to show the world around them, and how to see the light in it.