{"id":223493,"date":"2026-01-02T13:39:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T13:39:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/223493\/"},"modified":"2026-01-02T13:39:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T13:39:16","slug":"the-11-best-summers-in-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/223493\/","title":{"rendered":"The 11 best summers in art"},"content":{"rendered":"

Normal text sizeLarger text sizeVery large text size<\/p>\n

Summer is a time for joy, carefree abandon and quiet contemplation, as these evocative artworks show. But don\u2019t ask me why so many of them are nudes. Let\u2019s just blame the heat.<\/p>\n

Edouard Manet, Le D\u00e9jeuner sur l\u2019herbe (1863)\"\u201cOh<\/p>\n

\u201cOh hello there, are you intrigued by our little soiree?\u201c: Edouard Manet\u2019s Le D\u00e9jeuner sur l\u2019herbe (1863)<\/p>\n

Hmm, what have we stumbled upon here? Manet\u2019s Luncheon on the Grass is the epitome of a carefree summer, mid-afternoon skinny-dip included. This friendly gang has found their own shady spot in the forest: the dapper men are chatting about the latest Paris Saint-Germain game; the women are free and naked and looking at us like, \u201cOh, hello there. Are you intrigued by our little soiree?\u201d ; and the grapes, figs and rosetta bread rolls have spilled onto the dirt and no one\u2019s even annoyed. I wish I was this chill.<\/p>\n

Joaquin Sorolla, El Balandrito (1909)\"Sorry<\/p>\n

Sorry kid, that boat\u2019s about to sail off into the Mediterranean: Joaquin Sorolla\u2019s El Balandrito (1909)<\/p>\n

No one understands the glory of summer like a child, sailboat in hand, turning the ocean\u2019s shallows into their personal sandpit. In The Little Sailboat, the gentle lashings of Sorolla\u2019s brush, with the sun lapping so serenely off the Mediterranean, drives home the unvarnished innocence of this whole scene. This kid\u2019s in a world of his own, at least until his sailboat\u2019s inevitably taken by the tides, and then the real waterworks start.<\/p>\n

Henri Rousseau, The Dream (1910)\"Henri<\/p>\n

Henri Rousseau\u2019s The Dream (1910): Look, you\u2019d be naked too.<\/p>\n

The lounging nude in Rousseau\u2019s The Dream is all of us, sweltering through 40-degree days in our stuffy apartments, hallucinating the cool allure of a tropical rainforest. Beyond the bug-eyed tigers and pre-woke snake charmers, you can still feel the humidity emanating from Rousseau\u2019s fantasy, the cicadas singing, the mosquitoes biting, maybe even the sound of a waterfall gushing in the distance. Put on Nick Leon\u2019s A Tropical Entropy, stare deeply, and fade away.<\/p>\n

Georgia O\u2019Keeffe, Summer Days (1936)\"Georgia<\/p>\n

Georgia O\u2019Keeffe\u2019s Summer Days (1936): Because summer can be decay, too.<\/p>\n

Georgia O\u2019Keeffe, mystic chronicler of the dusky desert heat of the US\u2019s southwest, is not pussyfooting around when it comes to summertime. That flesh-eaten skull in Summer Days \u2013 hovering symbolically over ripe flowers, blue skies and red-hot mountains \u2013 is your reminder to slip, slop, slap.<\/p>\n

Max Dupain, Sunbaker (1938)\"Tanned<\/p>\n

Tanned like a Real Housewife: Max Dupain\u2019s Sunbaker (1938)<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been called Australia\u2019s best-known photograph, and its subject evokes summer better than every Instagram shot of an Aperol spritz-at-sunset combined: it\u2019s the mythical bronzed Aussie, skin glistening with lotion, sweat and seawater. Even in high contrast B&W, you can tell this guy\u2019s tanned like a Real Housewife. And he\u2019s rugged, too: he\u2019s not even lying on a towel, let alone under a beach cabana. Just a face full of golden sand, the true taste of summer.<\/p>\n

Edward Hopper, Rooms by the Sea (1951)\"Summertime<\/p>\n

Summertime sadness: Edward Hopper\u2019s Rooms by the Sea (1951)<\/p>\n

It seems Edward Hopper didn\u2019t just paint pictures of lonely salesmen and housewives eating steak-\u2018n\u2019-eggs at sad diners. His loneliness extended to summer, as in the evocative Rooms by the Sea. The sun pouring through the front door is warm and tactile, but a more pressing question: is this home just hovering over the ocean? There doesn\u2019t appear to be a porch or even a staircase. One step out that door and you\u2019re plummeting to the bottom of the sea. And you thought your summer AirBnb was just a \u201cshort stroll\u201d to the beach.<\/p>\n

Willem de Kooning, Villa Borghese (1960)\"It\u2019s<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the Italian countryside, duh: Willem de Kooning\u2019s Villa Borghese (1960)<\/p>\n

I once traipsed through a de Kooning retrospective at MOMA in New York thinking \u201cI don\u2019t get this at all, I\u2019m the dumbest boy alive!\u201d And then, at some point, it clicked: you need to look at de Kooning like you\u2019re reading a Richard Scarry children\u2019s book that fell in the bathtub, or like you\u2019re looking out a plane window after you just woke up from a six-hour nap. With just a few vicious horizontal swipes of blue and green, and some vertical lashings of yellow and white, he\u2019s somehow conjured up summer in the Italian countryside. Pass me a limoncello spritz!<\/p>\n

Agnes Martin, Summer (1964)\"Calm,<\/p>\n

Calm, meditative, restorative: Agnes Martin\u2019s Summer.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a meditative calm in Agnes Martin\u2019s watercoloured grid that you might optimistically call the promise of summer. In the midst of the hectic holiday season, summer doesn\u2019t feel quite like this yet: instead, it\u2019s red and spiky, like the Mall Santa you forced your kids to pose with. But as soon as the parties are done, Martin\u2019s blue squares is the mood we want to dive into.<\/p>\n

David Hockney, Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) (1972)\"The<\/p>\n

The prince of pool paintings: David Hockney\u2019s Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) (1972)<\/p>\n

Out of all the pool paintings David Hockney\u2019s done, this is the one that feels the most inviting. The way the sunlight ripples through that blue makes me want to grab my floaties and cannonball. Less inviting? Having your unimpressed partner, all dressed up in their finest pastels, hovering over the end of the pool and yelling: \u201cWhy are you still in there? We have to be at dinner in 10 minutes!\u201d<\/p>\n

Sally Robinson, Beach Crossing (1976)\"Time<\/p>\n

Time for a Calippo: Sally Robinson\u2019s Beach Crossing (1976).<\/p>\n

Almost as much as Max Dupain\u2019s Sunbaker, Sally Robinson\u2019s Beach Crossing conjures the typical Australian summer in hyperreal nostalgia. Specifically, it\u2019s the trek back from the beach to the local convenience store for a post-swim Calippo. Fifty years on, the only thing that\u2019s changed is the aesthetics: this picture\u2019s so \u201970s, I can hear Bon Scott-era AC\/DC blaring from someone\u2019s station wagon. But everyone knows today\u2019s best beach soundtrack is Bad Bunny.<\/p>\n

Wolfgang Tillmans, Lutz, Alex, Suzanne & Christoph on beach (1993)\"Stacks<\/p>\n

Stacks on for summer: Wolfgang Tillmans\u2019 Lutz, Alex, Suzanne & Christoph on beach (1993)<\/p>\n

The military uniforms are disconcerting, but I think I know what\u2019s up in this very \u201990s Tillmans photo: it\u2019s just a bunch of Joe Strummer-idolising German punks huddled on the beach in a post-hangover spill (the polyamorous affection suggests MDMA might\u2019ve been involved, too). May your summer be spent in such tender oblivion.<\/p>\n

To read more from Spectrum, visit our page here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Normal text sizeLarger text sizeVery large text size Summer is a time for joy, carefree abandon and quiet…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":223494,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[307,304,305,306,308,93,61,60],"class_list":{"0":"post-223493","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-artsdesign","12":"tag-design","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-ireland"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=223493"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223493\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/223494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}