Claude Monet – Fishing Boats at Sea

Fishing Boats at Sea is Monet’s marine of 1868: two fishing boats with dark triangular sails crossing a green sea, and a narrow pink line of light above the horizon. The original hangs in the Hill-Stead Museum at Farmington, Connecticut. We make it as a hand-painted copy in oil on canvas, in eight sizes or to your own measurement, with a photograph of the finished work sent for approval before dispatch.

Fishing Boats at Sea – Claude Monet

What is shown?

Open sea towards the end of the day, and three sails. No coast, no harbour, no rocks — only water, sky and boats moving away. Monet was in his twenties, painting on the Normandy coast where he grew up; fishing boats with dark sails were an everyday sight there, not an exhibition subject. That is exactly why the canvas is so quiet: nothing happens, nobody struggles with the sea, the day is simply ending.

What is on the canvas?

The format is horizontal and divided roughly into thirds: the lower two are sea, the top one sky. Left of centre, close to the viewer, a boat passes under a dark triangular sail that reaches almost to the top edge; the hull is black with a thin red line just above the water, and a small figure is suggested at the stern. Right of centre comes a second, smaller boat with two dark sails on the same course. At the far left a third sail is barely legible in the haze — a silhouette with no hull. The sea is green and blue-green, painted in short horizontal strokes with white crests that thicken towards the bottom edge. The sky is grey-violet with long cream cloud bars, a warm peach band runs just above the horizon, and on the water itself lies a narrow, pale pink line of reflected light. The canvas painting is signed at the lower left.

Why does this work matter?

It is the earliest Monet in that collection and one of the earliest he painted at all. The style is not yet impressionist in the later sense: the colour is not broken into small touches but laid in broad, quiet areas. Yet everything that will later make impressionism is already here — an interest in light rather than in narrative, a scene with no action, and a scene the academy was bound to call unfinished. An oil painting reproduction of this subject carries all of that with it, and an impressionist painting in the later sense grew out of exactly these experiments.

Why did the Salon refuse it?

The museum names three reasons itself: the broad brushwork, the unusually flattened arrangement without depth, and the harsh contrast of dark and light. The sails are painted as solid dark shapes with no rigging drawn in, so they read as cut-out forms lying on the sky rather than in it. For the Paris Salon of 1869 that was too little finished, and the work was rejected. Monet was twenty-eight; the following decade took him away from marines towards light, weather and air — exactly the direction the Salon had turned down. Alfred Pope bought the painting from Durand-Ruel in Paris in 1894: it was the last Monet he acquired and the earliest he owned. In 1907 he commissioned a frame for it to a design by Herman Dudley Murphy.

Which of Monet’s marines is this?

The sea without a shore returns in Monet, differently each time. When the wave comes close and fills the whole canvas the result is The Green Wave; when the sea breaks on rock, Storm on the Belle-Île Coast. The same boats, hauled up on the sand, are in Fishing Boats on the Beach at Étretat, and the most famous morning harbour of all is Impression, Sunrise. This subject differs in that the boats are already out in open water, and that the whole work hangs on a single pink line above the horizon. The same theme thirteen years later and far more agitated is the Fishing Boats in the Denver Art Museum.

How is our hand-painted version made?

The painter begins with sky and sea, not with the boats: the long drawn strokes of the sky first, then the short restless ones of the water, and only last the sails, which have to lie across both. The pink line above the horizon goes on last, in a single pass — it is the lightest tone on the canvas and will not take correction. Because this subject is almost without detail, everything depends on the relation between the three dark shapes and the pale sky behind them, and that relation is what we check most carefully while painting. Before the work leaves the workshop we send you a photograph of the finished canvas.

Which size for which wall?

Short answer: 120 x 90 cm for a living room, 80 x 60 cm for a narrower wall, 130 x 98 cm for a large open one. A painting for living room walls should take up roughly two thirds of the width of the sofa or sideboard below it. The small sizes, 40 x 30 and 50 x 40 cm, are meant for a hallway, a shelf or an office, where people stand close. The middle sizes, 60 x 40, 70 x 50 and 90 x 70 cm, cover most bedrooms and dining rooms. As impressionist wall art this subject is dark and quiet, so it works well on a pale wall, against which the dark sails cut cleanly.

Made to measure, stretcher and frame

If none of the listed sizes suits, we paint to measure — send the width and the height and we will quote a price and a lead time. The original measures 128.9 x 94.8 cm, a ratio of about 1 : 1.36; if you want exactly that ratio, say so and we will hold to it. The canvas is stretched over a wooden stretcher and the edges are painted, so it does not look unfinished without a frame. A frame is not required, but you may choose any moulding from our workshop.

Delivery and guarantee

We ship to the United Kingdom, Ireland and across the EU, wrapped in protective film and packed in a rigid box. Before dispatch we send a photograph of the finished work; if something on it is wrong, it is corrected before the piece leaves the workshop. Lead time depends on the size and on how full the workshop is. Every other Monet reproduction we paint is in the Claude Monet gallery, and we write about painting and about choosing a subject on the blog.

Frequently asked questions

Where is the original?

At the Hill-Stead Museum in Farmington, Connecticut, in the house Alfred Pope’s collection has never left.

What year is it from?

From 1868. The museum also records the signature at the lower left and the size as 94.8 x 128.9 cm — that is 128.9 cm wide and 94.8 cm high.

Is “Bateaux de pêche en mer” the same work?

Yes — that is the French name of the same painting; it is Fischerboote auf dem Meer in German, Ribiške ladje na morju in Slovene, Ribarski brodovi na moru in Croatian, Barche da pesca sul mare in Italian and Halászhajók a tengeren in Hungarian.

Is this a print?

It is not. Every piece is a hand-painted oil painting, made for the order. The brushwork stays visible and the surface is not flat, which no printed reproduction can do.

Which size should I choose?

Measure the width of the furniture below the wall and take about two thirds of it. For an ordinary three-seater sofa that means 120 x 90 cm.

Can I have a size that is not listed?

You can. Working to measure is normal here; send the width and height you want and we will quote a price and a lead time before anything starts.

How is it delivered?

Stretched on its stretcher, wrapped in protective film and packed in a rigid box. If you ordered a frame, the work is framed here.

Does the original have an accession number?

The museum does not publish one, and none appears in the openly available databases either, which is why you will not find one in the table above. We state what the museum itself records: title, year, technique, size and signature.

How high should I hang it?

Put the centre of the canvas about 150 cm above the floor. Above a sofa, leave around twenty-five centimetres of air between the backrest and the bottom edge.

Is the original signed?

Yes, at the lower left, Claude Monet. On our version the signature is painted where it sits on the original, with no year added, because the original carries none.

Does it work as a gift?

It does, and if you would rather not choose the size yourself there is a wall art voucher — the recipient then picks both subject and size.

• Painted by hand. Oil on canvas, no print and no machine application.
• Eight sizes or made to measure. From 40 x 30 to 130 x 98 cm, otherwise to your own measurement.
• A photograph before dispatch. You see the finished work before it leaves the workshop.
• Figures from the museum. Year, size and signature are given as the Hill-Stead Museum states them.