Lamp c. 1937

H. Langden Brown made this image of a lamp at an unknown date with graphite and gouache. There’s a kind of tender dedication at work here, the artist gently coaxing the form into being. You can see it in the soft gradations, almost like smoke, as the light plays over the metal. It’s really all about value, how light and dark tones can give shape to an object and a kind of solidity on the page. Look at how the artist has built up the cylindrical body of the lamp, creating this shimmer. It’s a bit like watercolor in the way the pigment sits on the surface, though there's a subtle chalkiness in the matte finish, which is probably the gouache. I think of Giorgio Morandi, who spent his whole life painting the same bottles. He wasn’t really painting the bottles, of course, he was painting the light and the air. It’s a good lesson for any artist, just keep looking.