Voiliers au sec

Voiliers au sec (Sailboats out of Water) depicts the off-season or dry-dock condition of sailing vessels hauled out of the water—a subject that redirected his coastal paintings away from the dynamic of sea and sky toward the more static, almost sculptural forms of beached hulls resting on their keels or cradles. Boat yards on the Normandy coast or in Mediterranean harbors were familiar sights, and the visual contrast between the rounded wooden hulls designed for water and the dry land on which they temporarily rested gave Bonnard an unusual formal problem. These dry-docked boats also carry a melancholy implication—vessels temporarily out of their element, waiting for the season to return.

The beached hulls provide strong curving forms that read almost as abstract shapes against the flat ground of the boat yard. Bonnard renders the wooden hull surfaces in warm ochres and terracottas contrasting with the cooler sky or water beyond. The scaffolding or props that support dry-docked vessels create angular geometric elements that contrast with the hulls' organic curves.