Manet painted this canvas in the summer of 1873 during three weeks spent with his family in the little coastal town of Berck-sur-Mer. He had his wife Suzanne and his brother Eugene pose for him on the beach as is shown by the grains of sand mixed with the paint. Eugène, soon to be the husband of Berthe Morisot, is gazing out to sea and lying in the same position as ten years earlier in Lunch on the Grass. I always have that melancholic feel when I'm looking at this masterpiece.
On the Beach
oil on canvas • 95.9 x 73 cm
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Édouard Manet