Street Hanging Lamp c. 1938

This watercolor of a street hanging lamp was made by Manuel G. Runyan sometime in the 20th Century. Look at the way the artist has captured the light reflecting off the glass! So subtle. It’s like he's not just depicting a lamp, but also the very idea of illumination. I love how you can almost feel the texture of the aged metal, rendered with delicate washes of brown. See how the paint is thin and transparent, allowing the paper to glow through? It gives the lamp this ethereal quality, as if it's not quite tethered to the earth. And that bulbous glass section! I wonder what kind of brush was used to achieve that smooth, almost seamless gradation of tone? It reminds me of the still lifes of Giorgio Morandi, but instead of bottles, we have this humble street lamp, elevated to something almost sacred. It's this quiet observation of everyday objects that really gets me going, the way an artist can transform the mundane into something extraordinary.