Louis-Gabriel-Eugène Isabey, 'The Fish Market, Dieppe', 1845

The son of the court portrait painter and miniaturist Jean-Baptiste Isabey (1767–1855), under whom he trained, Louis-Gabriele-Eugène Isabey was a successful painter, lithographer and watercolourist in his own right who tackled a diverse range of subjects including historical and genre scenes as well as landscapes. He was among the first of the nineteenth-century French painters to be inspired by the Normandy coast, which was to become an important location for artists such as Boudin (one of his students) and Monet.

Yet despite its title, this small picture may not be set in Dieppe, a fishing port on the Normandy coast; it was more likely inspired by seventeenth-century Dutch and Flemish still life painting, and the people are wearing historical costumes rather than contemporary clothes. The picture shows Isabey’s skilful use of shadows and darker tones, in part to produce a contrast with the more brightly lit areas, such as the fish stall, and to create an effect of distant space, framing the clifftop chateau we can just glimpse in the background.

A similar scene, The Fish Market, was painted by Philippe Rousseau around the same time. Rousseau was influenced by Isabey (the two artists may even have collaborated on Rousseau’s painting) and by Chardin.