My weekend has been spent with family. My daughter who lives a couple of hours away was here for the weekend, she spent friday night with me and then partied with her sisters on Saturday while I looked after the children. Now they have all gone back to their different homes and I don't expect I'll see that daughter again for another couple of months. When you are used to them all living close by it feels very odd not having them around.But it was a great weekend, can't believe its almost midsummer, another couple of days and it will be the longest day. To me summer is about BBQ and beach, and holidays, and kids, and family. Also about ancient traditions and earth magic. To others, summer, especially midsummer, has quite different meanings. After every one left I started thinking about midsummer, and how many different ways it has been portrayed by different artists. My favourite, and the one that captures my meaning of summer has to be the James Guthrie painting titled Midsummer; ( below) I love the light in this painting.
And after a little googleing....here are some of the other ways in which artists have represented 'Midsummer'.
Aus Heures Perd 'Midsummer Late Lunch ', I like the feel of this, can imagine taking lunch in the sun in a lovely french pavement cafe. 
Colin Carruthers 'Midsummer Landscape', can feel the heat in that landscape. 
Albert Joseph More 'Midsummer'...........a very popular choice. 
Edward landseer 'Midsummer Nights Dream'...........another well known one. 
Walter Withers 'Midsummer', I like the way the coloures look washed out by the sun here. 
William Frederic Witherington 'Midsummer'...........so very 'English' looking. 
Anders leonhard Zorn 'Midsummer Dance'..........it just looks ...'joyful' 
Edward Robert Hughes 'Midsummer Eve'..............for some people midsummer is the most magical time of year. 
Daniel Gerhertz 'Midsummer'.............not a very well known painting, but I liked the look on this young girls face. And that's my Midsummer collection.
Lovely paintings. Never heard of the artists' names.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful all. My favorite is the "midsummer landscape". Here it does not get dark until 9:45 and gets light again at 5:30. My guess is that you have longer days eve. I remember the "white nights" of Petersburg Russia when the sun never set for 3 nights.
ReplyDeleteI've never experienced the White nights; haven't been to Russia at that time. I like painting number 2, 5 and 10.
ReplyDeleteNo, you are closer to the North pole so you get more light. It's almost 9.30 pm now and it's quite dark. We are more to the South.
a perfect choice, Loretta! i love all of these, thanks!
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed seeing this.
ReplyDeleteI love all of these and was familiar with all but the last. I think it may be that Daniel F. Gerhartz is the corrected name.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful post...my art loving heart is happy here!
All of these paintings are magical. Who would have thought you would have found so many for your blog.
ReplyDeletehow wonderfull
ReplyDeletei agree with everything you said
the top one rings for me
:)
Not to gild the lily, but if I were going to add one, it would be this:
ReplyDeleteWhich is John Singer Sargent's master piece: Carnation Lily Lily Rose.
While they are all really nice, I think I prefer the first one. I love forests, particularly birch forests like the one in the painting, and midsummer is the perfect time to walk them.
ReplyDelete