Warm, Bright, Sunny Colours in Art and Illustration

I cannot endure to waste anything so precious as autumnal sunshine by staying in the house.

Nathaniel Hawthorne
Ilonka Karasz (1896-1981) 1962 bay
Ilonka Karasz (1896-1981) 1962 bay
Isaak Grünewald (Swedish, 1889 – 1946) Summer Scene Saltsjöbaden, c.1942
from Country Gentleman’s Magazine
Maximilien Luce (France 1858-1941) Yonne, the Road to Vermenton (1906)
William Bowyer was taught by both Ruskin Spear and Carel Weight at the Royal College of Art;, Time for Lunch, Darling (1960)
Claude Monet, The Artist’s Garden at Vétheuil
Biôt in Provence in 1923, Wilfred de Glehn
The house from Ponyo. (My analysis of that Studio Ghibli film is here.)
Charles Courtney Curran – May Morning 1902
Wilmot Emerton Heitland 1928
Carl Frieseke (American, 1874–1939) The Judas Tree, 1908
Woman’s World Magazine Sept 1917
Charlotte Wahlstrom (Swedish,1849-1924) – Northern Summer n.d.
Spring Blossoms, Abbott Fuller Graves American 1859–1936
Helene Funke (German painter) 1869 – 1957 Ansicht von Notre Dame aus Port Henry-IV in ParisAn der Seine, ca. 1908
American artist Arthur Grover Rider spent nine summers in Spain
Albert Marquet 1956, Pyla in Bordeaux
Claude Monet The Boardwalk At Trouville (1870)
Peter Krøyer’s ‘Summer Day at Skagen South Beach’ (1884)
Sorolla 1908
In the shallows Dorothea Sharp (British, 1874–1955)
Arthur Grover Rider (American, 1886-1975) Spanish Fisherman not dated
Early Morning. (1928) Kenneth Macqueen, Australia
Gustave Loiseau (French, 1865-1935) Spring 1906
Telemaco Signorini Strada alla Capponcina (1880-82)
‘The Echo.’ (1891) a young girl shouts into the Finnish midsummer night
Rhoda Holmes Nichols (1854-1930)
Pretty Penny by Edward Hopper, 1939. Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, Massachusetts
Emile Claus (Belgian painter) 1849-1924 Mother and child in a sunlit garden
Edward Emerson Simmons (American painter) 1852-1931 ‘Concarneau’
English painter Spencer Gore’s middle name was Frederick. He was known as Freddy, because his father was also ‘Spencer Gore’, famous as a tennis player.
Here’s another painting Freddy Gore. The residual heat of a summer’s day is evident. ‘The Icknield Way’ 1912

Freddy decided it was a good idea to call his son Frederick. (Surely they weren’t both called ‘Freddy’?) Anyway, like his father, young Frederick Gore (1913-2009) also became a (Post-Impressionist) painter. His style was similar to that of his father, also known for his bright landscapes.

Valley of the Calavon, Bonnieux by Frederick Gore (1913 – 2009), Post-Impressionist English painter
Frederick Gore ‘Mausanne’ (1938).

See more of Frederick Gore’s work at Art UK.

Giovanni Giacometti (Swiss, 1868 – 1933) ‘Greva of the Water’ 1927
Ilonka Karasz (1896-1981) The New Yorker 1960
Ilonka Karasz (1896-1981) The New Yorker 1960
Frank Sherwin (1896 – 1986) c1935 travel poster illustration for Penzance, Cornwall and Great Western Railway
Southern Switzerland Poster by Daniele Buzzi, 1943
Miep de Feijter, 1930s
‘Buttonwood Farm’, N.C. Wyeth, oil on canvas, 1920. See also: Painting The Haze Of Hot Summer Days.
Kay, Country Gentleman Magazine
Kay, Country Gentleman Magazine
Ivan Bilibin (1876 1942) 1921 ‘A Street in Cairo’
Gustave Caillebotte (French painter) “Rue Saint-Denis, Montmartre”, 1880
Adrian Paul Allinson (British painter) 1890-1959 ‘Harvesting’, 1939
Bobbsey Twins At The Seashore Whitman Edition 1954 full cover
NATIONAL FARM JOURNAL OCTOBER 1931
NATIONAL FARM JOURNAL OCTOBER 1931 cover art, illustrator not found
Gabriele Münter (German, 1877 – 1962) Tutzing 1908
In the Garden, Edvard Munch, 1902, an artist everyone will recognise from ‘The Scream‘.
Nikolai Alexandrovich Tarkhov (Russian painter) 1871-1930, the artist's son 1916-18
Nikolai Alexandrovich Tarkhov (Russian painter) 1871-1930, the artist’s son 1916-18. Pretty Munchian.
George Henry (1858-1943), Ladies by a Loch
George Henry (1858-1943), ‘Ladies by a Loch’. You can probably guess the nationality of the painter from ‘loch’.
George Henry - A September Day lake swan
‘A September Day’, also by George Henry.
Peder Mørk Mønsted (Danish, 1859–1941) 1897
Peder Mørk Mønsted (Danish, 1859–1941). This painting was completed in 1897.
Spring. A Young Couple in a Rowing Boat on Odense Å (1896) by Hans Andersen Brendekilde (Danish, 1857–1942)
Spring. A Young Couple in a Rowing Boat on Odense Å (1896) by Hans Andersen Brendekilde (Danish, 1857–1942)
House & Garden Magazine July 1933 Art Deco
House & Garden Magazine July 1933. (The name of the artist can probably found in the colophon, if someone has access to it.)
Homes and Gardens July 1938 magazine cover
Homes and Gardens July 1938 magazine cover
Two children approach a large house with an art deco mother in a pink dress waving at them.
House and Garden cover art by A.E. Marty, November 1933. The elongated body of the mother is very Art Deco. Even the children have been stretched out a bit. (And so has the house.)
Coca Cola 1957 - art by Al Moore
A Coca Cola advertisement from 1957, with art by Al Moore. The Coca-Cola company has the funds to employ the most talented advertisers and artists. They’ve always been very good at making Coca-cola look happy, bright, healthy and fun.
Maurice de Vlaminck (French, 1876-1958) Paul Gauguin
Agnes Cleve (1876-1951) View from Gullholmen
Farmer's Wife Magazine September 1935
Farmer’s Wife Magazine September 1935
Eleanor Vere Boyle,1825-1916 The cuckoo has come, 1879
Eleanor Vere Boyle,1825-1916 The cuckoo has come, 1879. This one’s not quite as yellow, but the colour scheme still suggests a bright, warm, sunny day. (Is that a massive cat or a very small girl?)
Fritz Baumgarten (1883 - 1966) German illustrator
Fritz Baumgarten (1883 – 1966) was a German illustrator who created warm, bright illustrations for a child audience, emphasising animal and insect life.
Another scene by Fritz Baumgarten. A forest restaurant, well patronised by woodland creatures.
Another scene by Fritz Baumgarten. A forest restaurant, well patronised by woodland creatures.
A. Cucchi fishing rock
A. Cucchi. The colours of this rock are amazing.
The House of Therese Krones, 1912-1914 Oscar Moll (German fauvist, 1875-1947)
Kenneth Steel (1906-1970) has made the Western Highlands look bright and warm. ‘See Britain By Train’.
From Flotsam by David Wiesner seaside
From a contemporary picture book called Flotsam by David Wiesner. Heat can also be conveyed via a more analogous palette.
Joop Polder
Joop Polder,  born in 1939 in The Hague, creates Surreal landscapes and in this one the heat is evident.

Now I’m moving on to a technique which conveys brightness and heat: A darker foreground, creating a juxtaposition. It also creates depth, of course.

James Edwin Meadows - Sandhurst from Camp Hill 1884
James Edwin Meadows – Sandhurst from Camp Hill, 1884.
John Brett - Florence from Bellosguardo
John Brett – Florence from Bellosguardo
William Smithson Broadhead's  Scarborough railway poster illustration of the 1930s
William Smithson Broadhead’s Scarborough railway poster illustration of the 1930s
John Samuel Raven – Saint-foin in Bloom
James Jacques Joseph Tissot - Croquet
James Jacques Joseph Tissot – Croquet. The dog is sensible. I would also be enjoying the shade if the heat were that yellow.
1936 Country Gentleman Magazine MARCH. Bright sunny days are sometimes snowy!
Władysław JAROCKI (1879-1965) Winter in Polish village (Poronin)
‘Morning in January’, Gerald Gardiner, oil on canvas, before 1959
Cuno Amiet (Swiss 1868-1961) The Blue House (1949)
Warm, sunny days aren’t always cosy and happy, either. This creepy image is by Balthus Balthasar Klossowski de Rola, a Polish-French artist (1908-2001). It’s called The Mediterranean Cat (1949).

Header illustration: Georges Dorival (1879-1968) 1914 travel poster illustration for Hyères, a French town on the Mediterranean Coast

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