French school, ca.1870-1880

French school, ca.1870-1880.
"Afternoon at the Beach.
Oil on canvas.
Size: 40 x 95 cm; 66 x 121 cm (frame).
With a landscape framing and a wide panoramic opening, the present canvas resolved with impressionist technique, carried out at the time when this artistic movement was breaking moulds with its way of capturing reality, denotes the influence of painters like Renoir or Monet. The dense forest on the left is thinning with trees as it approaches the sea, opening up on the right with a magnificent marina lined with boats. Elegant women are nestling among the makeshift tents that have been set up for picnics. Others, with their husbands and young offspring, head for the shore, attracted by the sailing boats, breaking up into small groups. The vibrant, impastoed brushstroke captures from nature the web of light and colour filtering through the thick green canopies, breaking up the forms but without losing the referential element: the elegant headdresses, long, long-tailed dresses, cotton aprons, fine lace.... And although the detail is subsumed by the typically Impressionist incandescent light, there remains a certain reluctance to stop describing the quality of the fabrics, the narrative implicit in the gestures, the anecdote of each gesture. This is a coastal landscape, probably Norman, perhaps from the Loire region, which was also immortalised by Renoir in those years when plein air painting reached a high level of development. Outdoor picnics, dances and everyday pleasures were sublimated by the French Impressionists, revolutionising the way of looking.