From classical allegory to modern outdoors · Light, harvest and leisure

Harvests, forests, beaches, walks and solstice festivals show summer as a season of work, abundance, desire and long lights.

Summer is less of a unique color than a regime of light. The high sun shortens the shadows, the foliage becomes dense and the fields reach maturity. In ancient art, the season often takes the form of an allegory: Ceres, crown of wheat, sickle and cornucopia sum up fertility and harvest. Maella, Prud'hon, Lancret and Teniers thus place summer in decorative cycles intended for palaces or salons. In the 19th century, the harvest also became social observation. Bouguereau, Daubigny, Gainsborough, Lorens Frølich and Léopold Robert show bodies at work, carts and collective rhythms. In the 19th century, the harvest also became social observation. Maella, Prud'hon, Lancret and Teniers thus place summer in decorative cycles intended for palaces or salons. In the 19th century, the harvest also became social observation. Bouguereau, Daubigny, Gainsborough, Lorens Frølich and Léopold Robert show bodies at work, carts and collective rhythms. The outdoors then shifts attention to the atmosphere: Théodore Rousseau observes an early summer morning in Fontainebleau; Krøyer follows the evening on Skagen beach; Steer paints Cowes and McCubbin an Australian evening. In the 20th century, Utrillo, Beckmann and Valadon transformed walks, couples or nudity into a modern experience of the season. In the 20th century, Utrillo, Beckmann and Valadon therefore cross fields, sea, town and forest to offer several intensities: active heat, shaded rest, night party or bright horizon. The selection therefore crosses fields, sea, town and forest to offer several intensities: active heat, shaded rest, night party or bright horizon. The selection "Summer Landscapes" compares summer and summer evening. Its reading favors details.

Painted summer is recognized less by the calendar than by the density of the foliage, the length of the day and the time when work and leisure occupy the same landscape.