Public collection via the Cleveland Museum of Art
AT-00009578About the Artwork
Ever since his childhood, Manet spent almost every summer at the seashore. At age 16, after failing the entrance exam for the naval academy, he embarked as an apprentice on a training ship, traveling as far away as Rio de Janeiro. The sea would always capture his imagination, and in 1864 he painted several seascapes. This painting was made nearly ten years later, while the artist was staying in Berck-sur-Mer, near Boulogne. Exploring light and movement, he rapidly sketched the sails of the countless ships that dance in the wind on blue-green waves highlighted with white. Manet even added a slight curve to the horizon, thus conveying an impression of infinite space, despite the painting's small size.
Inscriptions
Signed lower left: Manet
Provenance
Portier, Paris. Eugène Blot, Paris. Bernheim Jeune, Paris. Auguste Pellerin, Paris by 1910. Baron Denys Cochin. His sale, Paris, Georges Petit, 26 March 1919 (lot 17), to Léon Payen, Paris, for ff 30,000. Ralph M. Coe, Cleveland. Purchased by the Cleveland Museum of Art in November 1940.
Exhibition history
The Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition: The Official Art Exhibit of the Great Lakes Exposition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 26-October 4, 1936). The Silver Jubilee Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 23-September 28, 1941). French Drawings and Watercolors from French Public and Private Collections. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (January 6-February 15, 1942). 19th and 20th Century French Art and Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Loans. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 22-September 1, 1943). Impressionists and their Forebears from Barbizon. Dallas Museum for Contemporary Arts, Dallas, TX (organizer) (March 8-April 2, 1961). Édouard Manet. Philadelphia Museum of Art (organizer) (November 3-December 11, 1966); The Art Institute of Chicago (January 13-February 19, 1967). Impressionism: French and American. Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa, OK (organizer) (October 2-November 26, 1967). Manet and the Civil War. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY (organizer) (June 3-August 17, 2003). Manet and the Sea. The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL (organizer) (October 19, 2003-January 4, 2004); Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA (February 8-May 9, 2004); Van Gogh Museum, 1070 AJ Amsterdam, Netherlands (June 18-October 10, 2004). Edouard Manet. Von der Heydt-Museum, Wuppertal, Germany (organizer) (October 24, 2017-February 25, 2018).
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Édouard Manet (French, 1832–1883)
- Date
- 1873
- Medium
- oil on fabric
- Dimensions
- Framed: 52.5 x 74 x 7 cm (20 11/16 x 29 1/8 x 2 3/4 in.); Unframed: 34 x 55.8 cm (13 3/8 x 21 15/16 in.)
- Type
- Painting
- Classification
- Painting
- Department
- Modern European Painting and Sculpture
- Credit line
- Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund
- Accession no.
- 1940.534
More by Édouard Manet in museum collections
Open-access museum record · AT-00009578
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