Summer evening on Skagen's Southern Beach

P.S. Krøyer was inspired to paint this evocative picture in 1892 at a dinner party in his summer residence in Skagen. After dinner, the guests went down to the beach, and Anna Ancher and Marie Krøyer went for a walk along the shore. The picture is an excellent example of the atmospheric painting of the period, which many artists were preoccupied with at the end of the 19th century. The painting was exhibited in 1895 and purchased the same year by a German singer. It was in private ownership until 1978, when it was sold at auction in Copenhagen to a German businessman Axel Springer. He chose to donate the painting to Skagens Museum on condition that he be allowed to have it hanging in his own home for 20 years, but died in 1985 and the painting came to Skagens Museum the following year.