Boats at Sea, Sunset

Boats at Sea, Sunset, painted in 1868, belongs to the marine subjects Manet made during his visits to Boulogne-sur-Mer, depicting the working fishing fleet returning at the end of the day. The subject gave him the opportunity to treat the same problems of light, water, and atmospheric dissolution that would preoccupy the Impressionists a decade later, but handled with the tonal discipline and compositional economy he derived from his study of Spanish and Dutch masters. The MuMa Museum of Modern Art André Malraux in Le Havre — a city with deep maritime associations — holds this canvas as an appropriate home for a painting that connects the tradition of Dutch marine painting to the French modernity Manet was in the process of defining.

Manet applied paint in broad, confident strokes with little academic blending, the water rendered in flat horizontal passages of grey, blue, and amber that capture the late-day light with tonal simplicity. His palette at sunset reaches for warmer tones than his typical cool scheme — amber and orange against grey-blue water — while maintaining his characteristically summary handling of reflections and atmospheric effects.