Le Crotoy

c. 1823

Depicting the fishing village of Le Crotoy, situated on a bay along the Normandy coastline, this watercolor showcases Bonington’s command of freely applied washes combined with crisply rendered detail, as in the sailors’ costumes and the rigging of the foreground boat. He masterfully calibrates the relative translucency and opacity of different materials and textures: for example, the skyline barely perceptible through the sailcloth, and the wooden posts in the left foreground that are alternately seen through and reflected in the shallow water.

Medium	watercolor, with scraping, on cream wove paper
Dimensions	7 15/16 x 10 13/16 in. (20.2 x 27.5 cm)
Object Number	2007.8.2
Acquisition	Gift of the Manton Art Foundation in memory of Sir Edwin and Lady Manton, 2007
Status	Off View

Image Caption

Richard Parkes Bonington, Le Crotoy, c. 1823, watercolor, with scraping, on cream wove paper. Clark Art Institute, gift of the Manton Art Foundation in memory of Sir Edwin and Lady Manton, 2007.8.2

Select Bibliography

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

Sir Cuthbert Quilter; sale, Christie’s, London, 28 June 1926, no. 82, sold to Davis; S. C. Davis; Walter Horace Samuel, 2nd Viscount Bearsted; Marcus Richard Samuel, 3rd Viscount Bearsted, probably by descent; Peter Montefiori Samuel, 4th Viscount Bearsted, probably by descent; Nicholas Alan Samuel, 5th Viscount Bearsted, probably by descent (1996–1997); sale, Christie’s, London, 8 Apr. 1997, no. 63, sold to Ackermann & Johnson, London, as agent for Manton; Sir Edwin A. G. Manton, New York (1997–d. 2005); Manton Family Art Foundation (2005–2007, given to the Clark); Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 2007.