On the Beach, Les Petits-Dalles, Fécamp

Painted in 1873 on the Normandy coast at Les Petits-Dalles near Fécamp, this beach scene belongs to Morisot's coastal subjects produced during summer trips to Normandy. Beach scenes — with their combination of fashionably dressed figures, strong maritime light, and the expansive sea — were popular among Impressionist painters, and Morisot's treatment emphasizes the leisure and social observation over pure seascape. The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts holds this early coastal work.

The beach setting combines the strong diagonal of the shoreline with the horizontal expanses of sea and sky above. Figures are loosely sketched, their seaside clothing catching the bright coastal light. Morisot uses a relatively cool palette appropriate to the Normandy Atlantic coast, with greys and blue-greens dominating the water and sky.