Red Night

There are no known descriptions or photographs of this lost painting, but Astrup’s title indicates that it depicts a summer night with a reddish sky.

In Astrup’s list from 1927, it says that the painting was lost in the Bergen city fire of 1916. The artist doesn’t mention the owner, and the description of the picture is brief: “A forceful picture – that’s all I can remember about it”.

Astrup considers this version to be the final version of this particular motif. That is apparent from a discussion of the study August Night (N015). In 1910, this study was given to Edvard W. Aslaksen (1868–1938) to repay a debt. Three years earlier, in 1907, Sigurd Astrup (1873–1949) bought a third version, A Night in August, Jølster (K66). We can therefore surmise that the lost painting “Red Night” had a similar subject and was painted before that.