Lantern

Although Arthur Dove’s work as a whole is marked by his fascination with natural elements, he occasionally explored industrial or manmade motifs, including the lighting device that dominates Lantern. Like his colleague Stuart Davis, whose painting Saw (1988.144) transforms a mundane item into an artistic still life, Dove depicts the prosaic lantern as the object of aesthetic contemplation. Despite its abstracted forms, components of the lantern (probably a Coleman arc lantern) are recognizable, among them the two glowing mantles, the perforated collar with its black fuel valve, and the pump plunger. He employed a shimmering silver paint to depict the lantern’s globe as a flat, circular form, further marking his willingness to explore unusual materials.