Fishing Boats at Étretat

Date1885

Maker Claude Monet French, 1840-1926

Label TextOther artists had painted Étretat’s boats and fishing activity before Monet, but they often saw this world in nostalgic opposition to the superficial and imported glamour of the new tourist economy. For Monet, who had grown up around boats, it was more personal. He respected and identified with the fishermen and their sturdy vessels. In his mind their incessant daily routine, hard labor, and head-to-head confrontation with nature in almost any weather were not unlike his own painting practice. This painting of stranded boats immobilized by a violent sea reflects an idea that runs throughout Monet’s correspondence: human endeavor thwarted by unpredictable nature. The boats are a close-up, visual equivalent of Monet’s own sense of impotence and frustration at forces beyond his control during this period.

Object number92.88

ProvenanceThe artist; {purchased from his studio} by Desmond Fitzgerald (1846-1926), Boston, Massachusetts, by 1905; [Paintings by the Impressionists: Collection of the Late Desmond Fitzgerald, American Art Association, New York, Apr. 21-22, 1927, lot no. 97, reproduced p. 80]; sold to Glenn Ford McKinney, New York; to his daughter, Jean McKinney-Connor; to her daughter, Sarah Connor Hart, Seattle, Washington, Dec. 25, 1956; to the Seattle Art Museum, 1992

Photo CreditPhoto: Nathaniel Willson

Exhibition HistoryBoston, Massachusetts, Copley Hall, Monet, 1905. Cat. no. 62. Boston, Massachusetts, Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Monet, 1911. Cat. no. 17. Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, French Painting from SAM's Permanent Collection, Apr. 23, 2005 - Jan. 2, 2006. Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, France: Inside Out, Mar. 15, 2014 - ongoing [on view Mar. 15, 2014 - June 17, 2018; beginning Nov. 17, 2021]. Denver, Colorado, Denver Art Museum, Claude Monet: The Truth of Nature, Oct. 21, 2019 - Feb. 2, 2020 (Potsdam, Germany, Museum Barberini, Monet: Places, Feb. 22 - July 19, 2020). Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Monet at Étretat, July 1 - Oct. 17, 2021. Text by Chiyo Ishikawa. No cat. no., pp. 6, 9-11, 48, reproduced pp. 8, 46 (fig. 22), 69. Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Farm to Table: Art, Food, and Identity in the Age of Impressionism, October 23, 2025–January 18, 2026.Published ReferencesDaneo, Angelica, et. al. (eds.). Claude Monet: The Truth of Nature. Exh. Cat. Denver: Denver Art Museum, 2019; p. 206, reproduced fig. 91.

Credit LineGift of Sarah Hart

DimensionsOverall: 29 × 36 in. (73.7 × 91.4 cm) Frame: 40 1/2 × 48 3/4 in. (102.9 × 123.8 cm)

MediumOil on canvas