Brief report

The picture with an outgoing tide beneath a wintry autumnal sky is one of the numerous seascapes painted by Courbet in 1865/66 during his three- month stay in Trouville [Bailly-Herzberg 2000, p. 98; Courthion 1985, p. 99, 100; Fernier 1977, p. 266] (fig. 1).

For the picture support, he used a net-like fabric which he stretched himself and primed with a single layer of white. As further preparation of the ground, he applied two opaque layers of white and brown paint on the entire surface, comparable in function to an imprimitura. A striking feature even here is the discriminating use of the brush and the trowel, something we see again later in the painting process. Already in the preparation stage this leads to the surface structure and coloration influencing the later painterly execution (fig. 6).

It was on this brown ground, permeated with white, that Courbet applied the motif in his usual virtuoso trowel technique [Morton/ Eyerman 2006, p. 7], using various tools, for example a bristle brush and the edge of a palette knife, to apply a further glazing and structuring of the semi-dry but still soft paint (figs. 7-12). This proves that Courbet clearly attached great importance to the haptic reproduction of the motif. Accordingly, he also varied the consistency and smoothness or structure of the paint, which was applied in principle from light to dark. Thus in the region of the sky he applied fairly thin paint very smoothly, achieving the fine and gradual transitions by using a soft, broad brush to push the paint which had already been applied by a trowel (fig. 9). In the cloud, water and beach areas, by contrast, the paint is increasingly impasto, with a stronger surface structure (figs. 10, 11).

Gustave Courbet
The Beach, 1865/66, oil on canvas, 54.0 x 64.0 cm, WRM 2905

Gustave Courbet

born on 10 June 1819 in Ornans near Besançon,
died on 31 December 1877 in La-Tour-de-Peilz/Switzerland

Brief report with complete data as downloadable pdf-file

Further illustrations:

Fig. 02

Verso, lined


Fig. 03

Raking light


Fig. 04

Detail, signature


Fig. 05

Signature, absence of fine age-related cracks (arrows),
microscopic photograph (M = 1 mm)


Fig. 06

Surface structure of the white and brown preparatory layers, microscopic photograph (M = 1 mm)


Fig. 07

Detail, trowelled grey of sky over blue


Fig. 08

Detail in raking light, trowelled grey of sky over blue (arrows)


Fig. 09

Glazed thin paint application (arrows), microscopic photograph (M = 1 mm)


Fig. 10

Trowel and brush application (arrows), typical fine craquelure, microscopic photograph (M = 1 mm)


Fig. 11

Scratches in light-grey paint layer in the clouds, microscopic photograph (M = 1 mm)


Fig. 12

Characteristic impression of jabbing utensil, microscopic photograph (M = 1 mm)