Seaside near Raguenez

Raguénez is a point on the coast of southern Finistère, at Névez, a few kilometres from Pont-Aven and east of Concarneau. A small island lies off its beach, close enough to walk out to for about three hours either side of low water. The museum places Bernard there around 1887, when he was 19 and working his way along the Breton coast. That spring he had spent two months at an inn at Saint-Briac, on the north coast, where he painted the walls of his own room. This picture is oil on canvas that was later mounted on a panel, 77.5 centimetres high. The Breton sea stayed a subject of his for years, and in 1892 he sent a canvas called The Wild Sea, Saint-Briac to the Salon des Indépendants in Paris.