Étretat

Étretat was a fishing village of a few hundred people long before it was a resort, and it had no harbour. Boats were run up onto the shingle and hauled clear of the tide with capstans, some of which still stand along the seafront. Storms wrecked the village again and again in the first half of the 19th century. The resort fashion arrived only after 1843, with villas and, from 1852, a casino. By 1890, when Boudin painted this canvas, both lives shared the same beach. Here the resort is out of sight. Heavy hulls lie on the stones with their masts up, two men are busy at the nearest one, and two more boats stand offshore under sail. The cliff that closes the view on the right is the Falaise d'Amont. Boudin wrote the name Étretat at lower left, and signed and dated the picture at lower right.