There’s no denying it, everything looks better when it’s basking in sunlight.
Artists have known this for centuries – if you want your colours bright and your shadows dripping with drama, paint your subject in summer.
From spectacular sunrises to balmy evenings, blissful bathing to fairground fun, these are the artworks in London that will get you all excited over summer.
Bathers at Asnières, Georges Seurat, 1884, National Gallery
Lunch breaks don’t get much better than dipping your toes in the Seine. Georges Seurat’s Pointillist technique – using tiny dots of colour to build up a realistic scene – brings this Parisian scene to life at the National Gallery, in a painting that measures an immersive three metres wide.
Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose, John Singer Sargent, 1885-6, Tate Britain
There’s nothing quite like dusk in summer – at least John Singer Sargent thought so. The artist was so obsessed with getting the light exactly right in this painting that he would only paint for just a few minutes a day, meaning this portrait of his friend’s daughters took months to complete.
Norham Castle, Sunrise, Joseph Mallord William Turner, 1845, Tate Britain
While the rising sun waking you up at 5am might be a minor nuisance in the summer months, it’s quite something if you’re ready for it. Legendary British landscape painter JMW Turner captured the moment light breaks over this ruined Scottish castle, hinting at a crisp sunny day to come.
Bathers at La Grenouillère, Claude Monet, 1869, National Gallery
In this painting, Impressionist master Claude Monet envelopes us in an idyllic summer scene. As we take refuge from the heat under the bankside foliage, we can see the sun trickle down on frolicking bathers beyond the dappled shade.
Sunflowers, Vincent Van Gogh, 1888, National Gallery
In the summer of 1888, Vincent Van Gogh was living in a yellow house painting yellow flowers – his famous sunflowers to be precise. Taken from their outdoor home following the sun across the sky in the south of France, Van Gogh documented their changing state as a complex examination of the colour itself.
The King’s Daughters, Charles Fairfax Murray, 1875, Dulwich Picture Gallery
Even fictional folk love a summer’s day. Painter Charles Fairfax Murray took this scene from a translated poem by fellow Pre-Raphaelite artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti, showing the three daughters of a king reclining in a pretty blissful garden.
Claude Monet Painting by the Edge of a Wood, John Singer Sargent, 1885, Tate Britain
We’ve had Monet, we’ve had Sargent – and here’s a bit of them both. It was the former that inspired the latter to try painting outdoors - or en plein air - and here depicts a day the two spent together painting in the fields of Giverny, near Paris.
Hampstead Heath Fair, Wolfgang Suschitzky, 1949, Tate Modern
Back in London, Austrian-born photographer Suschitzky captured the more frivolous delights of a city summer. From giddy giggles to queasy frowns, this photograph taken at the north London green spot captures all the fun (and nausea) of the fair.
Bathing, Duncan Grant, 1911, Tate Britain
A few miles east, painter Duncan Grant drew on scenes of bathers at the Serpentine lake in Hyde Park, as well as Michelangelo’s nudes, for this painting made to decorate Borough Polytechnic’s dining hall. The painting caused some controversy at the time, as the site was known for its popularity with the LGBT community.
Montagne Sainte-Victoire with a Large Pine, Paul Cezanne, 1887, The Courtauld Gallery
A swirling wind arrests the skies in this scene by the “Father of Modernism” Paul Cezanne. Below the majestic Montagne Sainte-Victoire stands firm, while the parched fields of Provencal bake in the searing summer sun.
Waterfall, Arshile Gorky, 1942, Tate Modern
Summer can pass by in a bit of a blur. Armenian-born artist Arshile Gorky made this playful abstract observation of a tumbling waterfall in the summer of 1942, after spending three weeks dedicated to drawing from nature in the woodlands of Connecticut.
