Violet Twilight Glow at the Time of the Grass Fires

Painted on the Loango Coast in present-day Republic of Congo on April 13, 1876, during the seasonal grass fires. The sky is a nearly uniform field of dusty rose and coral, with a band of deeper red at the horizon and a single small bloom of blue-violet just above it. A scatter of faint orange marks near the top of the composition suggest distant fire glow or stars. The image was published in 1888 as a chromolithograph in Johann Kiessling's scientific study of atmospheric twilight effects following the eruption of Krakatoa in 1883, included as a comparison to the volcanic sunsets.