Fishing Pinks in Breaking Waves

Until 1904 Scheveningen, the fishing village beside The Hague, had no harbour. Its boats, flat-bottomed wooden pinks, were built to run straight up onto the beach, and Mesdag shows a fleet coming in through the breaking surf, pennants flying, some sails still set. Anchors already stick out of the wet sand in front. The crowd waiting at the water's edge is mostly women, in dark skirts and white caps, with baskets at their feet. They bought the fresh catch at auction the moment it landed, then went from door to door with carts to sell it. Mesdag made the canvas some time between about 1875 and 1885, and it is twice as wide as it is tall, nearly two metres across.