The Beach

Eugène Boudin, 1877

A row of about a dozen men and women sit, stand, or stroll along a sandy beach beneath a pale blue sky in this horizontal landscape painting. The scene is loosely painted so many of the facial features and other details are indistinct. The women wear dresses with long sleeves and skirts in shades of charcoal gray, parchment brown, vivid red, sapphire blue, or white. Five of them shade themselves with black parasols, and a woman to the right uses a white parasol with a topaz-blue interior. The men wear dark suits and straw-yellow hats. Another group of people clustered closer to the water to the right are even more loosely painted. A few people seem to wade out into the water, and dark smudges near the horizon suggest sailboats and one steamer. The horizon comes about two-thirds of the way up this composition, and the water and sky are similar tones of muted, ice blue. The artist signed the lower left corner, “E. Boudin.”
Kunstenaar
Eugène Boudin
Datering
1877
Soort
Schilderij
Techniek
oil on wood
Afmetingen
11 × 25,6 cm, 0,3 cm
Collectie
National Gallery of Art, Washington
Licentie
Publiek domein, CC0

Beeldbeschrijving

A row of about a dozen men and women sit, stand, or stroll along a sandy beach beneath a pale blue sky in this horizontal landscape painting. The scene is loosely painted so many of the facial features and other details are indistinct. The women wear dresses with long sleeves and skirts in shades of charcoal gray, parchment brown, vivid red, sapphire blue, or white. Five of them shade themselves with black parasols, and a woman to the right uses a white parasol with a topaz-blue interior. The men wear dark suits and straw-yellow hats. Another group of people clustered closer to the water to the right are even more loosely painted. A few people seem to wade out into the water, and dark smudges near the horizon suggest sailboats and one steamer. The horizon comes about two-thirds of the way up this composition, and the water and sky are similar tones of muted, ice blue. The artist signed the lower left corner, “E. Boudin.”

Eugène Boudin