Summer is officially here, which we often equate with relaxation and long, balmy days. For generations, the summer months have inspired artists to fill their canvases with leisurely scenes replete with shimmering light and vivid color. Here we have rounded up ten of our favorite summertime paintings:
Conrad Felixmüller, Ma bonne l'onde, 1926
In 1926, German Expressionist Conrad Felixmüller and his wife Londa traveled to the French Riviera for a long stay. Obviously taken with Londa's curves illuminated in the light of the setting sun, the artist picked up a brush and called the work Ma bonne l'onde- a play on words that refers to both Londa's name and the French word for wave.
David Hockney, Beach Umbrella, 1971
With David Hockney, the first summery motif that comes to mind are his swimming pools. But his painting of a parasol on the beach, also painted on the Côte d'Azur, exudes pure summer bliss. The iconic umbrella is a recurrent symbol of the Mediterranean beaches, providing some shade for sun-hungry tourists.
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Max Liebermann, Terrace of the Jacob restaurant in Nienstedten on the Elbe, 1902
In the summer of 1902, Max Liebermann moved to the Hotel Jacob on Elbchaussee in Hamburg, Germany at the invitation of the director of the Hamburger Kunsthalle. It was intended that he should paint motifs of the Hanseatic city, but he found his favorite setting right in front of the hotel doors on the terrace. The result, including Liebermann's famous “sunspots," is one of his best-known works today.
Anders Zorn, Sommar, 1887
After getting married in October 1885, the Swedish painter Anders Zorn and his newlywed wife Emma went on their honeymoon through Eastern Europe and Turkey. In the summer of 1886 they returned to Sweden and spent some time with Emma's family on the island of Dalarö off Stockholm before they began their life together in the town of Mora in Dalarna. Those idyllic summer days on the Swedish archipelago inspired this Sommar painting completed the following year.
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Paul Signac, Portrieux La Comtesse, 1888
No other style seems better suited to reproducing the shimmering light of the summer sun than pointillism. In 1888, Paul Signac, one of the founders of this divisionist style of painting, spent the summer in the Breton coastal town of Portrieux, where he found motifs for 15 oil paintings. This one gives a view of the small island of La Comtesse off the local beach.
John Singer Sargent, Staircase in Capri, 1878
This work by John Singer Sargent does not show a breathtaking view of the sea or a couple of bathing mermaids, but the staircase on the island of Capri is a definite slice of summer. Don't you also feel the cooling shade between the whitewashed houses, providing a moment of relaxation from the strong rays of the sun?
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Winslow Homer, Children on the Beach, 1873
In 1873, Winslow Homer spent the summer in the then flourishing fishing village of Gloucester in his home state of Massachusetts. That summer, the course was set for Homer's future career as an artist as the self-taught painter explored the influence and representation of light and color.
Yayoi Kusama, Watermelon, 1984
Would you like some refreshment? A chilled watermelon is just the thing. Conveniently, Yayoi Kusama has already laid out the cutlery for the boat-shaped slice of such a fruit in this acrylic painting from 1984. Kusama created a still life from different patterns, whereby the red dots of the pulp are reminiscent of her famous polka dots.
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Édouard Manet, Breakfast in the Green, 1863
In 1863, Édouard Manet caused a scandal when he presented his Breakfast in the green in the Salon des Refusés, an exhibition of works rejected by the official Paris Salon. In addition to two fully clothed men, it showed a naked lady, who in this context could only be a lady of the demi-world. Despite the scandal, the painting reflects the simple pleasures of a summer picnic.
Edward Cucuel, Two Seated Girls at Lake Starnberg, after 1918
The American painter Edward Cucuel lived in San Francisco, Paris and New York and had traveled through Europe, North Africa and the Far East. But it was the Bavarian foothills of the Alps that would permanently captivate his interest, first the Chiemsee, then the Ammersee and finally the Starnberger See, where he often painted young women garbed in airy clothes in front of a sunlit backdrop.
