The Sea

By 1899 Toorop had found the Dutch place that suited him best, the small seaside town of Domburg on the coast of Zeeland, where he spent his summers with his wife and young daughter. This seascape comes out of those summers. It is painted in a fine, careful pointillism, small separate dots of pale colour set side by side so that sea and sky seem to shimmer and dissolve rather than sit still. He made a whole series like it around that year, following the same water through different seasons and hours of the day. There is almost no drama in it, just weather and light on open water, laid down one small dot at a time.