Evening in Pompei.

H. A. Brendekilde's 'Evening in Pompeii' (1889) is a departure from his characteristic Danish rural subjects — the Italian archaeological site as a subject that evoked the ancient world's sudden destruction and the melancholy of civilization's fragility. Pompeii had been a cultural touchstone since its systematic excavation began in the eighteenth century, and painters throughout the nineteenth century depicted the ruined city under various atmospheric conditions. Brendekilde's evening treatment gave the ruins a particular atmospheric quality — the fading light and long shadows adding to the already inherent melancholy of the destroyed city.

Brendekilde renders the Pompeian ruins under evening light with attention to the atmospheric qualities that distinguish his treatment — the horizontal light casting long shadows across the ancient streets, warming the warm volcanic stone of the surviving walls, and creating a quality of melancholy beauty appropriate to the subject. His handling of the light quality — the distinctive glow of the Mediterranean evening — differs from his characteristic Danish atmospheric conditions.