Promenade beside the Sea

A man in a top hat and a woman riding side-saddle walk their horses along a shore, seen from behind, heading toward a line of cliffs under a pale, rosy sky. The water has been identified as the Bay of Naples. The canvas is small, about 22 by 32 centimetres, and it has the look of something dashed off on the spot. More likely it was not. Degas painted it around 1860, soon after he set up his first studio in Paris, and he seems to have built it indoors from pen and wash sketches in his notebooks. This was years before the Impressionists made painting in the open air a point of principle. The gait of the horses is carried by a few loose strokes of the brush, and the woman's blue veil lifts in the breeze behind her tall hat.