Meadow with Poppies

Red poppies spill across a rolling Hungarian meadow in this 1896 canvas by Pál Szinyei Merse, running back toward soft green hills under a hazy summer sky. A tiny figure strolls through the grass at the lower left, so small that it makes the field feel enormous. Scattered white daisies and a few flecks of blue give the eye little places to rest as it travels over all that green, and the whole scene carries the easy warmth of a bright afternoon.

Szinyei Merse was ahead of his time in Hungary. He was drawn to painting light and color outdoors, an interest he shared with the French Impressionists even though he arrived at his own version of it largely on his own. Critics were not kind to him in his early years, and their mockery hurt enough that he set down his brushes for a long stretch. He eventually came back to painting, and pieces like this one help explain why Hungary now counts him among its most treasured artists. Nothing about it feels complicated. It is simply the pleasure of a field of flowers in summer, something most anyone can share.