Die Abfahrt der Boote, Étretat

In the autumn of 1885 Monet was staying at Étretat on the Normandy coast, working on the beach among the fishing boats, when the weather turned and drove him indoors. So he painted this from the window of his room at the Hôtel Blanquet instead. In a letter that November to Alice Hoschedé, his companion, he described exactly this: attempting, through the glass, a picture of the boats setting out in the rain. He built the wet light from soft blues, pinks and greens, the sea and sky blurred together the way they look through a rain-streaked pane. The dark hulls drawn up on the shingle are caloges, retired boats tarred over and used by the fishermen for storage.