Summer Evening

Anders Zorn's 'Summer Evening' (1888) belongs to his extensive series of outdoor figure subjects — women in or near water in the quality of Nordic summer evening light that he found so consistently compelling. The Nordic summer evening has a distinctive quality: light that should be fading but refuses to do so, the long evenings of the northern summer creating a liminal time of warmth and soft illumination that Zorn pursued with particular intensity. His summer evening subjects are among his most admired works.

Zorn renders the summer evening light with his characteristic virtuosity — the warm, low-angle light of the northern summer evening creating the specific conditions of his most celebrated work. His handling of the figure (presumably female) in this evening light deploys his mastery of skin tone in natural illumination, the evening quality modifying his typical daylight palette toward warmer, softer tones. The water element, if present, provides the reflective dimension that was always central to his outdoor subjects.