Fishing Boats at Étretat
1885
Other 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.
Oil on canvas
Overall: 29 × 36 in. (73.7 × 91.4 cm)
Frame: 40 1/2 × 48 3/4 in. (102.9 × 123.8 cm)
Gift of Sarah Hart
92.88
Provenance: The 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: Nathaniel Willson
