Focus on this artwork and discuss the Painting description.
The painting depicts many of the members of the artists' colony as well as local inhabitants gathered around the traditional midsummer bonfire, celebrated in Denmark on Sankt Hans aften. The artists and the influential personalities from the village are on the left while the rest of the inhabitants are on the right. Krøyer originally made a sketch of the event in 1892 but it took him 14 years to complete the large painting which measures 149.5 centimetres (58.9 in) x 257 centimetres (101 in).In her Northern Lights, Lise Svanholm tells us Krøyer took his easel onto the beach at Skagen Østerby in 1903 and spent a couple of hours making an extensive sketch. In the foreground, Krøyer's daughter Vibeke stands in front of Marie Krøyer's brother, Valdemar Triepcke, next to Walter Schwartz, the mayor's son. Otto and Alba Schwartz come next, then Michael Ancher in his straw hat beside Degn Brøndum, the innkeeper. In the next row is Brøndum's daughter, Anna Ancher in a green shawl, Henry Brodersen, then the treasurer's wife and, at the end of the row, Schrøder, the postmaster with his little wife Soffi. In addition to the painters, the work includes the writer Holger Drachmann, the head of the lifeboat service, Captain P.K. Nielsen, and the town's treasurer, Brodersen, with his sister in law, Mrs Dethlef Jürgensen, on his arm. On the right-hand side, the artist Laurits Tuxen can be seen with Frederikke who is looking up wondrously at her husband. Tuxen is sketching the scene, resulting in a work which can be seen in Skagens Museum (Krøyer Painting the Midsummer Bonfire, 1906). The red and orange flames are blowing over towards Hugo Alfvén, with Marie on his arm, leaning on a fishing boat.
Holger Drachmann Degn Brøndum Michael Ancher Anna Ancher Hugo Alfvén Alba Schwartz Skagen Laurits Tuxen Sankt Hans aften Skagens Museum Marie Krøyer