Lamp c. 1936

Hester Duany made this painting of a lamp sometime in the first half of the 20th century. Just looking at it, I can imagine Duany working slowly, maybe with watercolor. See how she captures the subtle gradations of light and shadow? It's like she's trying to understand the essence of this object, its weight and its stillness. I wonder what Duany was thinking about while painting? Was she just trying to capture the physical appearance of the lamp, or was she trying to imbue it with some kind of symbolic meaning? To me it’s domestic, it's quiet. Artists often look at the everyday, the things around them. And in that process of looking and making they ask, what does it mean to see? How does the light fall? How do we experience the world around us? So, in a way, Duany is in conversation with artists across time, all trying to answer these questions.