Summer Night

ClassificationsPaintings-oils

Artist Aloys Ludwig Bohnen (American, 1889 - 1967)

Datec. 1925

Made AtCalifornia, United States, North America

MediumOil on canvas

DimensionsFramed: 33 1/2 x 27 1/2 x 2 1/2 in. (85.1 x 69.9 x 6.4 cm)
Unframed: 26 x 21 x 2 in. (66 x 53.3 x 5.1 cm)

Credit LineGift of the James Earl Fraser Estate

Object number31163

DescriptionOil painting titled, Summer Night, by Aloys Ludwig Bohnen c. 1925. This paintings dreamlike soirée is somewhat of an outlier to the artist's more characteristic seascapes, but Bohnen was drawn to plein air impressionism in all of its forms. Here we see the artist draws on works by other California artists. For example, the incorporation of paper lanterns in the scene was a choice made by many impressionists as the light they threw gave scenes a pictorial effect (see similar works by Childe Hassam). Other elements feel less intentional. Considering Bohnen’s capacity to paint in near-photorealism, a talent we see in the one portrait still in the Bowers’ collections, it is odd that a close examination of the background reveals a cross hatch layer was added after the eucalyptus trees had already been painted. This peculiar brushstroke was not used by many painters, and the effect is to almost bring the night’s empty sky into the foreground.

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