Summer Night

In the summer of 1886, a group of Norwegian artists gathered at Fleskum Farm in Bærum to create new freedom for their country's art. Instead of continuing to follow the ideals of realism, the painters of the Fleskum group had the moods of the outdoors affect them. Summer Night by Kitty Lange Kielland is one of the masterpieces of this groundbreaking summer in Bærum. The painting shows the viewer a lake at dusk. Darkness has already settled on the surrounding hills and trees, which also envelops the back of the lake. The water in the foreground is still lit by the setting sun. Water lilies are distributed on the silent surface of the water, while thin reeds stick out. In the sky, which must have been bright blue during the day, thin clouds are raising for the night. In the dark area of the lake, a small boat is floating, rowed by a single human. In the green landscape with the spreading night-time blackness that boat is almost hidden from the view of the beholder. There is a great rest from this motif, which gains mystical and inscrutable nuances through the twilight. Man in himself seems small in the face of the timeless rules and laws of nature.