Feu de la Saint-Jean sur la plage de Skagen

Kroyer first sketched this Midsummer bonfire on the beach at Skagen in 1892, but it took him 14 years to finish the large canvas. In between came other commissions and then a steep decline, his eyesight failing, his mind giving way, spells in a mental hospital at Middelfart. By 1906 his marriage to Marie was also collapsing; she had fallen for the Swedish composer Hugo Alven. Kroyer painted both of them into the ring of townspeople and fellow artists gathered around the fire, arranging his own troubles into the crowd. Danes still light these Sankt Hans bonfires every June to mark the shortest night of the year. This was the last large figure painting he completed, and he died three years later.