Coast with Beached Boats and Figures

c. 1823–24

This view, probably made at Dunkirk on the coast of Normandy, shares the low horizon of Le Crotoy. The image centers on beached boats left behind by the receding tide, as fishermen drag in their nets and other figures mingle on the shore. Yet the sky, vying for importance as a subject, receives considerable space and attention. Its colors vary from rose to cream to blue, suggesting uncertain weather. Bonington’s care with the rest of the composition is likewise evident: two figures incline toward a pair of boats whose masts reciprocally lean toward them. Distant boats fade into the horizon, balanced by a twisting plume of smoke at right.

Medium	watercolor over graphite, with scraping, on cream wove paper
Dimensions	Sheet: 6 x 8 1/4 in. (15.2 x 21 cm)
Object Number	2007.8.3
Acquisition	Gift of the Manton Art Foundation in memory of Sir Edwin and Lady Manton, 2007
Status	Off View

Image Caption

Richard Parkes Bonington, Coast with Beached Boats and Figures, c. 1823–24, watercolor over graphite, with scraping, on cream wove paper. Clark Art Institute, gift of the Manton Art Foundation in memory of Sir Edwin and Lady Manton, 2007.8.3

Select Bibliography

Spink & Son. English Watercolour Drawings. April-May 1979. London: Spink & Son, Ltd. 1979. Noon, Patrick. Richard Parkes Bonington "On the Pleasure of Painting". Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, November 13, 1991-January 19, 1992; Petit Palais, Paris, March 5-May 17, 1992. New Haven: Yale Center for British Art. 1991. Wilton, Andrew. Turner, Girtin and Bonington: A New York Private Collection, Paintings, Watercolours, and Drawings. New York: Privately Published, 2001. Noon, Patrick. Richard Parkes Bonington: The Complete Paintings. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008. Clarke, Jay, ed. Landscape, Innovation, and Nostalgia: The Manton Collection of British Art. Williamstown, MA: The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 2012.

Provenance

The artist; sold or given to Madame Benjamin Delessert; Jean-Louis Lemerle, by descent; sale, Palais d’Orsay, Paris, 30 Nov. 1978, sold to Spink; [Spink & Son, Ltd., London, 1978–1979, no. K3 6832, sold to Manton, May 1979]; Sir Edwin A. G. Manton, New York (1979–d. 2005); Manton Family Art Foundation (2005–2007, given to the Clark); Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 2007.