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Indian Summer (Gossamer)
Józef Chełmoński · Realism & Academic
- Artist
- Józef Chełmoński (1849–1914)
- Date
- 1875
- Dimensions
- 119.5 x 156 cm
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Location
- National Museum, Warsaw, Poland
Indian Summer shows a young peasant girl lying on a grassy field on a warm autumn day, propped on one elbow, playing with a long strand of gossamer, the floating spider's silk that drifts through the air in late autumn.
A closer look
The girl, barefoot, in a simple skirt and a red scarf, gazes dreamily at the thread caught between her fingers. Beside her, a dog dozes, and a small fire smoulders in the field where cows graze in the distance. The light is soft and golden, the sky pale; the whole scene breathes the calm, slightly melancholy mood of the last warm days of the year, which Poles call 'babie lato', 'women's summer'. Chełmoński celebrated the Polish countryside and its people with deep affection.
More by Józef Chełmoński
Famous works elsewhere
- Storks 1900
- Cranes 1870
- Summer Evening 1875
- Four-in-Hand 1881