Sea View, Calm Weather (Vue de mer, temps calme)  1864

This is one of Édouard Manet’s earliest paintings of the sea, a subject to which he returned repeatedly. It is one of three or four works that he painted in Paris from sketches made on a vacation with his family in the northern port of Boulogne-sur-Mer. Though boldly brushed and almost calligraphic in form, the vessels remain identifiable as specific types. A side-wheel pa...