Monet was in his early twenties when he painted this view across the breakwaters to the headland of La Hève, near Sainte-Adresse on the Normandy coast. He knew the area well, as he had spent his childhood in nearby Le Havre. The picture was probably made on the spot as a study for a larger studio painting, La Pointe de la Hève at Low Tide (Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth) which he showed at the Paris Salon in 1865.
The empty shingle beach has a wintry, desolate air. Three figures in a boat rowing towards us are wrapped up against the cold, and smoke rises from the chimney of the cottage on the cliff. In the distance sailing boats race along the horizon, their dark sails set against the glimmer of sunlight below the bank of grey cloud. The crisp dabs of paint suggesting pebbles on the beach and broad flat brushstrokes surrounding the boat hint at the future direction of Monet’s art.
This painting is included in a list of works with incomplete provenance from 1933–1945; for more information see Whereabouts of paintings 1933–1945.
Text extracted from the National Gallery’s Annual Report, ‘The National Gallery Report: April 1996 – March 1997’ and supplemented by Isobel Muir.
C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
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