Art of Krakatoa

When Krakatoa exploded it spewed all sorts of fine volcanic ash into the air. This caused a difference in the color and intensity of sunsets for years following the eruption. An English painter by the name of William Ascroft was commissioned by the Royal Society of Great Britain to record this phenomenon. He tried many times to capture this color on canvas. He created over 500 of these sunset paintings and showed them at the Science Museum. That is where these painting remain to this day. These paintings were very valuable to the scientific community; the Royal Society even included them in their scientific report on Krakatoa. Ascroft wasn't really a modern artist, he was a textbook landscape painter with a focus on capturing the scene just as it is. This is probably why he was chosen by the Royal Society. In fact, he often was frustrated with his Krakatoa sunset paintings as he couldn't capture the sky as well as he wanted to. It is my opinion that he was always frustrated because he was trying to capture a moving target in the same way he would paint a still landscape. He was tasked with capturing the sunset which is an ever changing landscape that keeps the artist on a strict timer. His paintings remind me a little of Monet's Impressionist paintings with the quick brushstrokes and the attempt to capture a moment in time. I think if Ascroft would have been more accepting of Impressionist ideals he would be happier with his work, and he would actually get a more representative image of the sunset.

One of many paintings by William Ashcroft from The Eruption of Krakatoa, and Subsequent Phenomena: Report of the Krakatoa committee of the Royal Society (1888), ed. by G.J. Simmons.

Another sunset painting by William Ascroft.

While William Ascroft was for sure painting the fiery skies, a different painter is speculated to have painted these skies. Norwegian painter Edvard Munch painted The Scream just ten years after the initial explosion of Krakatoa. While Munch was known to be a very emotional painter who dealt with intense colors on a regular basis, many have hypothesized that the skies in his painting were not an exaggeration. This painting is seen as part of the Expressionist movement due to it's bright colors and depiction of how Munch felt on the inside. Munch struggled with mental illnesses and lots of anxiety and these themes would often be visible in his paintings. We will never know if Munch actually painted the sky as it looked or if he painted his own interpretation.

Evdard Munch, 'The Scream' 1893. Image taken from EdvardMunch.org

To see more of Ascroft's sunset paintings click this link.

http://collection.sciencemuseum.org.uk/people/cp32141/william-ascroft

Works Cited:

Great Britain Royal Society. “The Eruption of Krakatoa, and Subsequent Phenomena : Royal Society (Great Britain). Krakatoa Committee : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming.” Full Text of "Passing", London : F. Warne ; New York : Scribner, Welford, and Armstrong, 1 Jan. 1888, archive.org/details/eruptionkrakato00whipgoog/page/n334.

Hamblyn, Richard. “The Krakatoa Sunsets.” The Public Domain Review, The Public Domain Review, 26 Apr. 2018, publicdomainreview.org/2012/05/28/the-krakatoa-sunsets/.

Panek, Richard. “ART; 'The Scream,' East of Krakatoa.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 8 Feb. 2004, www.nytimes.com/2004/02/08/arts/art-the-scream-east-of-krakatoa.html.

“The Scream, 1893 by Edvard Munch.” Edvard Munch Paintings, Biography, and Quotes, 2018, www.edvardmunch.org/the-scream.jsp.