Lantern c. 1938

Walter Hochstrasser made this lantern painting without a date, using a gentle palette of greens and browns. Imagine the artist’s hand moving across the surface, coaxing out the textures of the metal. I wonder if Hochstrasser worked from life? Squinting at the object in dim light, trying to capture the way light flickers across its surface. The brushstrokes are so delicate, creating a kind of atmospheric haze around the lantern. It's not about photorealism, it is more about mood. I’m drawn to the way the simple X-shape on the green panels creates a focal point, grounding the whole image. You get the sense that, for Hochstrasser, it's not about grand gestures but about the quiet observation of everyday objects. Think of Morandi's bottles. Painting, in this mode, becomes a form of meditation—an act of seeing and feeling that connects us to the world in unexpected ways.