Boats on the Seacoast at Étaples  1871

In October 1870 Daubigny and his family went to London to seek refuge from the Franco-Prussian War; this scene of beached fishing boats is thought to be the first painting he signed and dated upon his return to France in June 1871. The subject is one he had helped to popularize in the prior decade, when vanguard artists including Courbet, Jongkind, Whistler, Corot, and the...