Summer Night by Albert Block in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, January 2023

Title: Summer Night

Artist: Albert Bloch (American, Saint Louis, Missouri 1882–1961 Lawrence, Kansas)

Date: 1913

Medium: Oil on canvas

Dimensions: 48 × 45 1/4 in. (121.9 × 114.9 cm)

Classification: Paintings

Credit Line: Purchase, Lila Acheson Wallace, Jo Carole and Ronald S. Lauder and Scott Heffley Gifts, 2016

Accession Number: 2016.343

Working in Germany in the 1910s, Bloch was the only American artist who, at Vasily Kandinsky’s personal invitation, exhibited with Der Blaue Reiter ("The Blue Rider"), the Munich-based group that sought the spiritual in art. In keeping with Der Blaue Reiter’s metaphysical aspirations, Bloch’s ethereal Summer Night features silent figures moving through a moonlit landscape of rolling hills and bending trees. Tufts of grass and spots of fruit create delicate patterns, while soft mists whirl about the scene. Cool lavender blues evoke a serene atmosphere in which spirit bodies communicate purely through gesture.

Text from: www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/648354