Boats at Berck-sur-Mer

A cluster of little boats rides at anchor off the beach of Berck-sur-Mer on the Channel coast, their masts set against a calm expanse of sea and sky. Édouard Manet painted this small, freely brushed marine view in 1873, during the summer he spent on the Normandy coast at the height of the first Impressionist exhibitions. Its loose handling and bright, unblended passages of water and sail show Manet moving decisively toward the open-air manner of his younger colleagues, in what is one of the most serene and relatively little-known sides of his oeuvre.