The Coming of Night (1897) | Wilfrid Gabriel de Glehn | Painting Art Print | Wall Frame

Against a dark-blue background of craggy hills and star-studded midnight sky, a woman emerges from the shadows, her nude body illuminated by moonlight, covered only by the long flowing tresses of her hair, which tangle a jet-black bat.

A seductive, mysterious, Symbolist scene, made all the more intriguing by the signature of the British painter Wilfred Gabriel de Glehn. Today de Glehn is remembered as one of England's leading Impressionists of the early twentieth century, whose vibrant landscapes brilliantly capture the shifting qualities of sunlight and shadow. Indeed de Glehn and his painterly style are often mentioned in conjunction with John Singer Sargent, a close friend, travelling companion and mentor. 

The Coming of Night was described in a Magazine of Art article of 1903; 'We are shown, rising from the sea, her long, fair hair wind and wave tossed, the figure of a girl, agreeable of face, over which has fallen the soft dream-langour. In the background a pointed headland of rocky cliff merges into a fast darkeneing sky, across which two sea-gulls wend their way homeward in the gathering gloom. The sense of approaching night with its deepening shadows and its hush of sound is as successfully realised as the feeling of solitude which marks the coming darkness of the sea.'