Olivia Holm-Møller is today considered one of the most prominent female painters of the 20th century – a loner with a strong will and a rare artistic vision. She studied at Emilie Mundt and Marie Luplau’s Art School and later at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen, where she was enrolled between the years 1901–10. The length of this enrollment was due to several longer breaks, and she left the Academy without taking the final exam.

Holm-Møller was never married, but in the spring of 1915 her sister-in-law died, leaving behind two young boys. Holm-Møller interrupted her budding career and returned to her hometown of Homå and took on the role of nanny and housekeeper for her brother Severin. Soon after, she moved into the house next door, where she built a studio and used the afternoons to paint. The period became very productive, and the two boys appear in countless paintings.

Like so many of her colleagues, Holm-Møller used travel to educate herself and find inspiration. The first trip in 1905 was to London, and Italy, The Netherlands, Belgium and France followed. Even when she reached an advanced age, she maintained a rigorous travel schedule. She sought out distant and exotic destinations, such as China, India, Tunisia, Morocco and other countries on the African continent, and along the way she drew sketches and watercolours, which she translated into paintings at home. Her artistic mind remained experimental and curious – with the courage to seek out her own paths – and she continues to inspire later generations of painters.

The motif with flaming bonfires is known from other of Holm Møller's works, including “Midsummer Eve Bonfire” from 1941, which is part of the collection at Holsterbro Art Museum. In the work here, both the participating spectators and the viewer of the work have been placed very close to the fire, and the expressive orange and yellow colours seem to both warm and burn from the surface of the image.

Olivia Holm-Møller has within the last few years been shown at, for instance, the exhibition “Colour Scream” in 2006 at Gammel Holtegaard, Baunhøj Mølle in Grenaa, 2017, and most recently at “Spark”, Gammel Strand, where she was in the company of Jens Ferdinand Willumsen and Asger Jorn.