Figures on a beach in northern France

Thomas Shotter Boys British

Not on view

Boys’s artistic vision was shaped by Richard Parkes Bonington, whom he met in Paris in 1823. Their friendship encouraged Boys to shift his attention from engraving to watercolor. After Bonington’s tragic early death in 1828, Boys moved back to England and made this watercolor around the time he returned to France two years later. He found the subject on the northern coast, perhaps in Normandy, and made changeable weather a focus. Dark swift rain clouds threaten to drench figures dressed in local costume who stand near a beached sailing vessel. While the handling and approach to form display a distinct individuality, the basic conception continues to pay tribute to Bonington.

Figures on a beach in northern France, Thomas Shotter Boys (British, Pentonville 1803–1874 London), Watercolor and gouache (bodycolor) over graphite with stopping out

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Figures on a beach in northern France, Thomas Shotter Boys (British, Pentonville 1803–1874 London), Watercolor and gouache (bodycolor) over graphite with stopping out
Figures on a beach in northern France, Thomas Shotter Boys (British, Pentonville 1803–1874 London), Watercolor and gouache (bodycolor) over graphite with stopping out

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