Summer Evening at Skagen Beach – The Artist and his Wife

One of the best known paintings of the Skagen Painters, it depicts Krøyer with his wife Marie and his dog Rap strolling on the beach in the moonlight.

[1] In 1895, in a letter to his friend Oscar Björck, 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 presents the blue half-light, a favourite with the Symbolists 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.

"[3] A few months after the spring exhibition, Krøyer was admitted to Middelfart Mental Hospital after suffering a nervous breakdown.