Children and young girls picking flowers in a field north of Skagen

Michael Ancher's painting of children and young girls picking flowers in a field north of Skagen is one of his most affectionate images of the Danish fishing community's domestic life. Ancher, who spent his entire career at Skagen, documented every aspect of the community from the drama of sea rescues to the quiet rhythms of domestic and seasonal activity. Flower-picking in the heath north of the town — the blossoming moorland that surrounded Skagen — was a seasonal activity belonging to the rhythm of summer, and Ancher captures it with the warmth and directness that distinguished his treatment of local subjects.

The open heath setting floods the composition with the bright summer light of northern Denmark. Ancher's palette for outdoor summer scenes is characteristically high-keyed: warm flower colors, the blue of sky, the figures in light summer dress. The handling captures the informal movement of children in open space.