Fishermen by the Sea on a Summer's Evening. Study. (2)

Michael Ancher's 'Fishermen by the Sea on a Summer's Evening' study (1887) is a preparatory work for his repeated engagement with the subject of Skagen fishermen gathered at the shoreline in the long Nordic summer evening. The summer evening on the North Sea — the prolonged twilight that kept the sky luminous far into the night — was one of Ancher's most characteristic subjects, the fishermen's figures silhouetted against the bright horizon creating the formal and atmospheric drama that made these paintings among his most celebrated. The study format allowed direct observation without the compositional constraints of the finished exhibition work.

Ancher renders the evening study with the freedom of preparatory observation — the figures of the fishermen and the quality of the evening light captured in summary but direct form. His handling of the specific quality of the Nordic summer evening light — the low, horizontal illumination and the bright sky persisting late — is observed with the immediacy that study format allows. The compositional essentials are established without the finish required for exhibition.