Darth Vader with Emperor's Royal guards on Hoth — Print & Oil Painting

The brightest canvas in this whole group, and by some distance. Measured overall it sits at nearly three-quarters of full brightness: a white field, a pale blue-grey sky, snow blowing across everything and softening every edge in the picture. Almost nothing here is dark.

Which is what makes the three coloured figures work. Vader occupies the centre in black, knees slightly bent, cape swung out wide behind him, the blade held low and running off to the right as a red bar. Flanking him at a distance stand two guards in full crimson: floor-length robes, tall smooth helmets with a narrow visor slot, each holding a long pike upright. They are the only saturated colour on the canvas and they have been placed symmetrically, one to each side, like brackets.

Between and behind them the supporting cast is nearly invisible. White-armoured troopers kneel and stand in the snow at both edges, so close in value to the ground that you find them one at a time. A grey angular structure rises behind Vader's shoulder, a walker's legs show at the right, and a small yellow burst of fire goes up at the middle right.

The paint is thin and dragged throughout, with the snow scumbled over the figures rather than around them, so the whole image looks slightly weathered, as if seen through the storm rather than in it.

The guards are the detail worth knowing. They were drawn from the best soldiers the Empire had and assigned to one man alone, which makes their presence here a statement about rank: they are on this battlefield because of who is standing between them. From our Star Wars collection, next to the wider assault on the same ice and the close study of a single guard and his pike.