Brendekilde — Summer River Landscape with Distant Farmstead

A broad, calm river winds through the summer landscape, its near bank a tangle of russet reeds and yellow buttercups. Green willows line the water's edge. In the middle distance, a long white farmstead with a reddish-brown roof sits beyond the fields. Above, a dramatic sky of billowing clouds fills most of the canvas — the kind of weather that can turn in an hour. Signed with Brendekilde's initials, lower left.

Unpeopled and quiet, it needs no occasion at all — a postcard for a note that's really just about the view.