Harald Sohlberg
Summer night
Summer night
Couldn't load pickup availability
About the original:
The stools have been carelessly pushed aside and the people have probably gone indoors. The veranda door is still ajar and reflects the landscape in the window glass. There are half-empty glasses and decanters on the table, and a pair of ladies' gloves and a hat have been left on the flower box. The greatly shortened house wall and the colorful diagonal of flowers create a perspectival impression in the motif. Attention is drawn to the dark silhouettes of the landscape and the brighter evening sky in the distance. The motif contains a tension between the foreground's colorful richness of detail and the background's simplification in both form and colour.
The painting can be considered an atmospheric tribute to the bright, Nordic summer night. At the same time, it expresses a strong, almost cosmic experience of an infinite sky above the undulating ridgeline. The artist possibly also wanted to convey the feeling of silence and solitude that can rest over a landscape. As so often in Harald Sohlberg's pictures, people are absent.
At the time when the picture was painted, Sohlberg lived in a small apartment in the residential area of Nordstrand in Kristiania, with a view of the islands in the inner Kristianiafjord and the Bærumsås Islands. For him himself, Sommernatt was linked to his own biography – the picture celebrates his engagement. Sohlberg's thoughts were put into written form if the motif is then also linked to love, coexistence and anticipatory joy.
Text: Frithjof Bringager
From "Highlights. Art from Antiquity to 1945", The National Museum 2014, ISBN 978-82-8154-084-2
Date: 1899
Other titles: Summer Night (ENG)
Designation: Painting
Material and technique: oil on canvas
Technique: Oil
Material: Canvas
Dimensions: 114 x 135.5 cm
Subject: Visual arts
Classification: 532 - Visual arts
Motif: Summer
Type of motif: Landscape
Motif - place: Nordstrand, Oslo
Acquisition: Purchased 1899
Inventory no.: NG.M.00525
Part of exhibition: Art 3. Works from the collection 1814-1950, 2007 - 2011
The dance of life. The collection from antiquity to 1950, 2011 - 2019
Edvard Munch and Harald Sohlberg. The landscape of the mind, 1996
Im Lichte des Nordens. Scandinavian Painting at the Turn of the Century, 1986 - 1987
Dreams of a summer night. Scandinavian painting at the turn of the century, 1986
Nordic Art. The Modern Breakthrough 1860-1920, 2012 - 2013
Edvard Munch and Harald Sohlberg. Landscapes of the Mind, 1995 - 1996
Landschaft als Kosmos der Soule. Malerei des nordischen Symbolismus bis Munch, 1998
Nordic moods. Nordic painting at the turn of the century, 1987
Registration level: Single object
Owner and collection: The National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Visual Art Collections
Photo: Høstland, Børre

See all works
-
Winter night in Rondane
Vendor:Harald SohlbergRegular price From 299,00 NOKRegular priceUnit price per -
Red wild wine, Åsgårdstrand
Vendor:Edvard MunchRegular price From 299,00 NOKRegular priceUnit price per -
Summer night
Vendor:Harald SohlbergRegular price From 299,00 NOKRegular priceUnit price per -
Night glow
Vendor:Harald SohlbergRegular price From 299,00 NOKRegular priceUnit price per
