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James McNeill Whistler (1834–1903)
Coast of Brittany (Alone with the Tide), 1861
Oil on canvas; 34 3/8 x 45 1/2 in. (87.3 x 115.6 cm)
Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Galerie Martinet, 1861
Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, Connecticut, in memory of William Arnold Healy,given by his daughter, Susie Healy Camp
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Whistler painted this seascape, his first in oil, at the end of a three-month visit to Brittany's northern coast. Brittany was detached from modern French culture, and the sleeping peasant woman, alone on the beach, conveys the region's isolation. The woman's awkward pose and the heavy impasto in the craggy shoreline and crashing waves reflect the influence of Gustave Courbet. The two painters became friendly in 1858 and maintained contact even after Whistler left Paris for London in 1859.
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