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RE: L O N G E S T DAY OF THE YEAR -- It's Summertime!!!!!!!!!!!
Happy summer to you too! We can't have our midsummer bonfires because it has been too dry since the beginning of May... So we have to look at the old paintings instead.
I wonder if that is some old Celtic ritual? I was surprised when I first moved here to the Alps, on June 21st there were fires burning on some mountain tops. The afternoon thunder is already echoing through the valley right now, so I am not expecting anyone to try it today -- but we'll see.
As a non-painter I love the illuminating quality of the fire with the shadows, and the moon on the water. What is the artist's name?
It is a Germanic ritual if anything. The Celts celebrated transitions not peaks - we know that from the Coligny calendar. For them dusk and dawn was probably more important than midnight and noon.
But up here the lightest and darkest days are significant by themselves. Even though we are generally atheists (of sorts) light nights and dark days are pretty vehemently influential on the way you live and act.
The painter is P.S. Krøyer. He is almost up there with Singer Sargent and Anders Zorn. I was never that fond of him, but he was brilliant. When painting this he was on the brink of a psychic breakdown. Central in the painting, in the background, you can see his beautiful wife and the Swedish composer Hugo Alfvén standing together in front of a boat. She left him for Alfvén just about that time!
The mountain rituals were surely just a localized way honoring the sun on the the longest and shortest days of the year, as was done at places like Stonehenge.
Thanks for the info on P.S. Kroyer, he speaks to me, I need to dig deeper on him!!
Here are some beautiful oil sketches for the midsummer fire.
Amazing I was not aware of him, fantastic that you brought him to my attention, thanks so much!