Painting Collection Claude Monet Boats on the Beach at Pourville, Low Tide (1840—1926) In 1882, Claude Monet spent time painting his native Normandy while staying in Pourville, a fishing village along the rocky coastline. Setting up on the beach, he created artworks en plein air, capturing the changing light and atmosphere. He painted with quick, defined brushstrokes of unmixed color for the land and wispier, blended marks in blues, turquoises, and pinks for the sky and sea, separated only by a misty horizon line. This work is one of two paintings in the Kreeger’s collection from this spot on Pourville’s beach—the other, Sunset at Pourville— overlooking the grass-covered limestone cliffs of Varengeville and Vasterival. In Monet’s framing, the landmass on the left rises up from the coast like a lumbering beast. The cliffside is depicted mostly in shadows, with dark blue brushstrokes woven around dabs of peach and yellow tones, indicating the limestone surfaces that are reflected in the water below. The beach is empty except for two small vessels nestled in the sand, emphasizing the solitary nature of this scene, where only the artist is witness to the changing tide. —Danielle O'Steen, Ph.D. |
  
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