Женщины, ожидающие рыбацкие лодки на пляже Берка

Berck had no harbour. The flat-bottomed boats went off the open sand and came back onto it, and getting them up the beach took people waiting on shore with ropes and carts, which is why the women in this picture are standing where they are. Boudin first came to Berck in 1874 and kept returning for about 20 years, making more than 120 pictures there. He worked outdoors and fast, and the two dark clusters of figures are put down in a few loaded strokes on wet sand that takes their reflection. By 1880 the fishing was sharing the beach with something else, since the seaside hospital opened in 1861 for sick children was turning Berck into a town of sanatoriums.