Eugène Le Poittevin - Children Fishing At étretat

Large oil on canvas by Eugène Le Poittevin featuring two children fishing on foot as a woman looks on. Oil signed with the monogram on the lower right.

Dimensions: 65 x 82 cm

A marine painter, "inventor of Étretat" in the words of Alexandre Dumas, Le Poittevin prefigured Impressionism. After an established official career and numerous paintings exhibited at the Salon, he devoted a significant part of his output to Normandy. This was particularly true of Étretat, then a small fishing village, which he helped to introduce to his friends among the Parisian artistic elite. While Baudelaire mocked this painter for "painting too well", his bold choice of framing, reminiscent of Japanese prints, the setting aside of romanticism and the primary importance given to activities and the human figure make him a player of modernity.

On this large, highly constructed canvas, Le Poittevin chooses to depict characters at a closer distance than usual. The detail given to the children's figures, which are particularly fine, makes this a high-quality painting in the painter's output. Their patched clothes and the historical accuracy of the outfits recall Le Poittevin's closeness to this fishing community, to which he devoted several months of his time. In the background, but still at the center of the composition, we recognize the cliffs of Étretat, while the stormy sky and rough sea contrast with the calm of the scene.

All the natural elements are also extremely refined, notably the great cliff on the right of the composition, which seems alive and as if covered in a skin. Great care is also taken with the scene in the background where rocks, sailboats and cliffs rub shoulders, all bathed in a light pink light.