1803-1805

Evening

Philipp Otto Runge

German, 1777 - 1810

The series of delicate arabesque designs known as the Times of Day was the masterpiece of Runge’s short career. The artist conceived the project in 1802 as a set of four large paintings for display in a garden pavilion, but he had barely managed to finish the painted panel for Morning Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2001-94-1) by the time of his death in 1810. Evening is part of the only completed version of the cycle -- a set of four large etchings meticulously executed by a team of professional printmakers in Dresden working from Runge’s full-scale preparatory drawings.

The four enigmatic images depict various cycles of life, from morning to night, spring to winter, and birth to death. Each is a combination of religious allegory and nature images, which viewers have found to be both astonishing and baffling.