Cleveland Museum of Art
Boats at Berck-sur-Mer
Édouard ManetLinkedCulture matchlcp-4e4676476acc
- Date
- 1873
- Medium
- oil on fabric
- Culture
- France, 19th century
- Department
- Modern European Painting and Sculpture
- Institution
- Cleveland Museum of Art
- Object ID
- 119697
Ever since his childhood, Manet spent almost every summer at the seashore. At age 16, after failing the entrance exam for the naval academy, he embarked as an apprentice on a training ship, traveling as far away as Rio de Janeiro. The sea would always capture his imagination, and in 1864 he painted several seascapes. This painting was made nearly ten years later, while the artist was staying in Berck-sur-Mer, near Boulogne. Exploring light and movement, he rapidly sketched the sails of the countless ships that dance in the wind on blue-green waves highlighted with white. Manet even added a slight curve to the horizon, thus conveying an impression of infinite space, despite the painting's small size.
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Provenance & credit
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- Credit line
- Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund
- Provenance
- Portier, Paris. Eugène Blot, Paris. Bernheim Jeune, Paris. Auguste Pellerin, Paris by 1910. Baron Denys Cochin. His sale, Paris, Georges Petit, 26 March 1919 (lot 17), to Léon Payen, Paris, for ff 30,000. Ralph M. Coe, Cleveland. Purchased by the Cleveland Museum of Art in November 1940.
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