The Jetty of Boulogne-sur-Mer

In 1868 Boulogne-sur-Mer was two things at once: the French end of the Channel packet run to Folkestone, working since 1843, and a coastal town that was filling up with summer visitors. Manet spent that summer there with his family, and what he brought back was the holiday crowd on the wooden jetty. He drew the figures one at a time in his sketchbook and only later placed them along the pier, singly and in small groups, so the promenade here is assembled. The woman with the parasol and the child at the railing are carefully finished, while other strollers are three or four strokes each. The quay runs diagonally across the canvas and splits the picture in two, with a sailing ship anchored in the gap between the piers. Early in August of that same summer, from his hotel window on the quay, he painted the same harbour at close to midnight.