A robed, hooded skeletal figure kneels among fruit-laden orchard trees, holding a glowing lantern with a bulging sack over one shoulder. Three black cats slink through autumn leaf litter in the foreground, and a pale full moon hangs in a hazy night sky at upper left.

Flat color washes over ink linework, with fine cross-hatching and stippling, give the scene the look of an aged woodcut or linocut print. The lantern is a small warm accent in the soft moonlit dark, and a title plate reading THE LANTERN KEEPER sits near the bottom edge. The mood is whimsical, nostalgic and gently eerie rather than frightening.