1865, Gustave Courbet, The Beach -- Wallraf-Richartz Museum (Cologne)
From the museum label: This work depicts provocatively little, almost nothing at all! In the foreground just a length of shoreline, beyond that a stretch of sea, and above a few wafts of cloud, all more or less in matching shades of bleak muted colours mixed with black. There is not a sail to brighten the horizon, not a wanderer making his way along the shore: the viewer is alone before the desolate expanse of the sea. But anyone who knows the North Sea from first hand - the painting was done on the Normandy coast at Trouville - has experienced such gloomy days. And Courbet wished only to paint such unvarnished realities.
1865, Gustave Courbet, The Beach -- Wallraf-Richartz Museum (Cologne)
From the museum label: This work depicts provocatively little, almost nothing at all! In the foreground just a length of shoreline, beyond that a stretch of sea, and above a few wafts of cloud, all more or less in matching shades of bleak muted colours mixed with black. There is not a sail to brighten the horizon, not a wanderer making his way along the shore: the viewer is alone before the desolate expanse of the sea. But anyone who knows the North Sea from first hand - the painting was done on the Normandy coast at Trouville - has experienced such gloomy days. And Courbet wished only to paint such unvarnished realities.