Luke Skywalker and Yoda Sit Before a Blazing Fire — Print & Oil Painting

Two figures seen from behind, sitting on a grass ridge, watching a tree burn. That is the entire picture, and it is one of the best-composed pieces in the group: the two silhouettes occupy the lower centre, the fire fills everything above and behind them, and the artist has not put a single competing detail anywhere else.

On the left, a man with long hair and a heavy cloak, shoulders rounded, sitting with his weight on one hand. On the right, much smaller, a figure in a pale robe with two very large pointed ears, sitting upright. Neither face is visible. Both are edged in gold where the firelight catches the outline, and both are otherwise solid black.

The fire is painted as a wall rather than as an event: vertical columns of flame with paler gold between them, sparks lifting in slow drifts, and heat washing the top corners of the canvas almost to white. The grass in the foreground is picked out blade by blade in the same gold, which is the detail that makes the ridge feel like a real place to sit.

What gives the image its weight is the posture. Nobody is trying to put the fire out. The older of the two came back specifically to let it burn, and the younger one is being taught something about attachment by watching a library he was afraid to open go up in front of him.

Part of our Star Wars collection, alongside the Yoda portrait and Luke in old age.