“Hestene rides i Bad”. The horses are ridden in the water. Signed and dated Mich. Ancher 1900. Oil on canvas. 77×111 cm.

“Hestene rides i Bad”. The horses are ridden in the water. Signed and dated Mich. Ancher 1900. Oil on canvas. 77×111 cm. Exhibited: Charlottenborg 1901 nr. 656. Provenance: Label from Sagførernes Auktioner on the stretcher. Børge Nielsens Auktioner 1989. The motif of two young men riding at the water's edge on Skagen beach is known in two additional versions. One belongs to Michael and Anna Ancher's house in Skagen and one was sold at Bruun Rasmussen auction 888, 2019 no. 38. All the versions of the motif were painted in 1900, and the motif should be considered a main theme within Danish vitalism that unfolded in the years around the turn of the century – not least in the artist colony in Skagen. Vitalism was prevalent throughout society with an increased focus on a free and healthy lifestyle, the physical beauty and strength of the human body, as well as the life-giving and curative properties of nature. The idea of a healthy soul in a healthy body was very popular. For example, the Olympic Games were resumed in 1896 – inspired by the physical and beauty ideals of antiquity. The present painting reflects this re-vitalization of society. The two young men with healthy, naked bodies embrace the outdoors in the life-giving sunshine in an interaction with nature in the shape of the sea and the beautiful muscular horses. The choice of colours in the painting, with the almost white reflections of light in the quiet green-blue water, that is only whipped up around the legs of the horses, gives the image a vitality in itself, and for many the life in the sunshine on the beach represents the embodiment of the art of the Skagen painters.