Too Darn Hot!


Summer—New York Artist Leon Kroll visually captures the sultry city heat in this painting Summer—New York.

Here, Kroll presents several traditional subjects. Nude and clothed figures, a still life in a skillfully rendered interior, and urban and pastoral landscapes combine in a tour de force of classical form.

This urban scene is currently on view in our traveling exhibition Scenes of American Life: Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum at the Tennessee State Museum in Nashville, Tennessee.

Pictured: Leon Kroll, 1884–1974, Summer—New York, 1931, oil, 59 x 76 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Bequest of Genevieve L. Kroll.