If you have a moment, let us take a stroll through the world of painting and experience summer as the artists of the 19th century saw it, from Edouard Manet to Edward Charles Williams.
The following paintings all evoke summer in one way or other, even if summer was not necessarily their chief subject.
Some of them remind us that summer was not a season of ease for everyone. Others will make us wonder whether those hatted and parasoled women were not a little warm under their very proper dresses.
Step by step, picture by picture, let us begin.
(Click on an image to enlarge it.)
Do you have a favorite? Why?
MANET, Edouard Girl in the Garden at Bellevue 1880 Oil on canvas, 92 x 70 cm 
SARGENT, John Singer A Morning Walk 1888 Oil on canvas, 67 x 50 cm Private collection 
MONET, Claude Bridge over a Pond of Water Lilies 1899 Oil on canvas, 93 x 74 cm Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 
RICO Y ORTEGA, Martín Rio Maria, Venice Oil on panel, 35 x 23 cm Private collection 
Vincent van Gogh Wheat Field with a Lark Summer 1887, Paris Oil on canvas, 54 x 65 cm Rijksmuseum Vincent van Gogh, Amsterdam 
FRIEDRICH, Caspar David The Summer 1807 Oil on canvas, 71 x 104 cm Neue Pinakothek, Munich 
MILLET, Jean-François Buckwheat Harvest: Summer 1868-74 Oil on canvas, 85 x 111 cm 
BOUDIN, Eugène Summer at Trouville 1890-94 Oil on canvas, 49 x 73 cm Musée Malraux, Le Havre 
FEARNLEY, Thomas Fishermen at Sorrento 1834 Oil on paper, laid on canvas, 27 x 39 cm Private collection 
KRØYER, Peter Severin Bathing Children 1892 Oil on canvas, 33 x 41 cm Den Hirschsprungske Samling, Copenhagen 
ANCHER, Anna Kirstine Sunlight in the Blue Room. Helga Ancher Knitting in her Grandmother’s Room 1891 Oil on canvas, 65 x 59 cm Skagens Museum, Skagen 
WILLIAMS, Edward Charles A Summer Evening at Sonning 1859 Oil on canvas, 102 x 155 cm Private collection
boy with a hat 
Definitely a lot of great art, but the one by Monet has always been my favorite.