Vue de mer, temps calme (1864)

Manet, Édouard (1832-1883)

Vue de mer, temps calme (Sea View, Calm Weather)
1864
Oil on canvas, 73.6 × 92.6 cm
Art Institute of ChicagoChicago

This is one of Édouard Manet’s earliest paintings of the sea, a subject to which he returned repeatedly. It is one of three or four works that he painted in Paris from sketches made on a vacation with his family in the northern port of Boulogne-sur-Mer. Though boldly brushed and almost calligraphic in form, the vessels remain identifiable as specific types. A side-wheel packet steamer heads up the Channel, leaving the slower sailing boats in its wake. (AIC)

See also:

• Boulogne-sur-Mer (France)