''Summer Evening at Skagen Beach – The Artist and his Wife'' ( da, Sommeraften ved Skagens strand. Kunstneren og hans hustru) is an 1899 painting by

Peder Severin Krøyer Peder Severin Krøyer (; 23 July 1851 – 21 November 1909), also known as P. S. Krøyer, was a Danish painter. Life Growing up and early training Krøyer was born in Stavanger, Norway, on 23 July 1851 to Ellen Cecilie Gjesdal. He was rai ...

. One of the best known paintings of the

Skagen Painters The Skagen Painters ( da, Skagensmalerne) were a group of Scandinavian artists who gathered in the village of Skagen, the northernmost part of Denmark, from the late 1870s until the turn of the century. Skagen was a summer destination whose scen ...

, it depicts Krøyer with his wife

Marie Marie may refer to: People Name * Marie (given name) * Marie (Japanese given name) * Marie (murder victim), girl who was killed in Florida after being pushed in front of a moving vehicle in 1973 * Marie (died 1759), an enslaved Cree person in Tro ...

and his dog Rap strolling on the beach in the moonlight.

Background

The Skagen Painters were a close-knit group of mainly Danish artists who gathered each summer from the late 1870s in the fishing village of

Skagen Skagen () is Denmark's northernmost town, on the east coast of the Skagen Odde peninsula in the far north of Jutland, part of Frederikshavn Municipality in Nordjylland, north of Frederikshavn and northeast of Aalborg. The Port of Skagen is ...

in the far north of

Jutland Jutland ( da, Jylland ; german: Jütland ; ang, Ēota land ), known anciently as the Cimbric or Cimbrian Peninsula ( la, Cimbricus Chersonesus; da, den Kimbriske Halvø, links=no or ; german: Kimbrische Halbinsel, links=no), is a peninsula of ...

, painting the local fishermen and their own gatherings. P. S. Krøyer arrived there in 1882, quickly becoming the most prominent member of the group. In 1895, in a letter to his friend

Oscar Björck Oscar Gustaf Björck (15 January 1860 – 5 December 1929) was a Swedish painter and a professor at the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts. Biography Born in Stockholm, from 1877 to 1882, Björck was a student of Edvard Perséus at the Academy where his ...

, Krøyer wrote "I am also thinking of painting a large portrait of my wife and me together — but for that I shall definitely need good weather, so it won't be this year." In fact it was four years later, in the summer of 1899, that he finally created his large painting. Maybe it was in recognition of 10 years of marriage with Marie Triepcke as illustrated in other works of family life at the time as well as in a number of the photographs and sketches he used as a basis for the work.

Painting description

The final result nevertheless has a rather melancholic tone. Despite the beautiful surroundings, Marie appears distant, disappearing into the blue moonlight. Even Krøyer's own weak figure seems to be experiencing difficulty in supporting her on his arm while the closest figure of all is Krøyer's faithful dog, Rap. After Krøyer had worked on the painting throughout the summer, he submitted it to the

Charlottenborg Spring Exhibition The Charlottenborg Spring Exhibition (''Charlottenborg Forårsudstilling'') is an annual art exhibition in Copenhagen, Denmark. The event is held at the Charlottenborg Exhibition Building (''Kunsthal Charlottenborg''). Kunsthal Charlottenborg ...

in 1900. It was not very well received there, being criticized as banal. In fact, it presents the blue half-light, a favourite with the

Symbolists Symbolism was a late 19th-century art movement of French and Belgian origin in poetry and other arts seeking to represent absolute truths symbolically through language and metaphorical images, mainly as a reaction against naturalism and realis ...

who believed the twilight hour heralded the coming of death. In 1907, Krøyer conveyed his own feelings about Skagen evenings: "Skagen can look so terribly dull in the bright sunlight ... but when the sun goes down, when the moon rises up out of the sea, ... with the fishermen standing on the beach and the cutters sailing by with loosened sails ... in recent years this has been the time I like most of all." A few months after the spring exhibition, Krøyer was admitted to Middelfart Mental Hospital after suffering a nervous breakdown.

Background

Painting description

References

Further reading