Claude Monet – Fishing Boats at Sea

Fishing Boats at Sea is a hand-painted oil reproduction of a Monet sea motif: two fishing boats with dark triangular sails move across green water, and a narrow band of pink light lies above the horizon.

Fishing Boats at Sea – Claude Monet

What is on the canvas

The canvas is landscape and divides roughly into thirds: the lower two are sea, the upper one
sky. Left of centre, close to the viewer, a fishing boat moves under a dark triangular
sail that reaches almost to the top edge; its hull is black with a thin red line just
above the waterline, and a small figure is indicated at the stern. Right of centre a second,
smaller boat follows with two dark sails, turned the same way. At the far left edge a third sail
is barely visible in the haze — a silhouette with no hull. The sea is green and blue-green, laid
in short horizontal strokes with white crests that gather towards the bottom edge. The sky is
grey-violet with long cream bands of cloud; just above the horizon a warm peach band spreads,
and on the water itself lies a narrow pale pink line of reflected light. The
canvas is signed at the lower left.

One line holds the whole picture

The scene does almost without detail: no harbour, no coast, no breaking waves. Everything
rests on the relation between the dark sails and the light sky behind them — the sails are
painted as closed dark shapes, with no rigging drawn, so they read as cut-out forms. It is
because of that simplification that the pink line at the horizon is so strong: it is the
lightest and warmest tone on the whole canvas, long and thin, and the eye keeps returning to it.
This oil on canvas reproduction is therefore a study of light rather than a sea piece. The
brushwork is short and restless in the water, long and dragged in the sky, so the difference
between a moving surface and a still one is visible before it is named.

The subject among Monet’s works — and what is not established about this original

Sea without a coast returns in Monet in several versions. When the wave comes close and fills
the whole canvas the result is The Green Wave;
when the water breaks against rock, Storm on the Belle-Île Coast.
The same boats, hauled onto sand, are in Fishing Boats on the Beach at Étretat,
and the best known morning harbour is Impression, Sunrise.

What we deliberately do not state here: Monet painted this motif in more than
one version, so which of them is the original behind this particular reproduction is not
established. You will therefore find no year of execution, no collection name and no accession
number on this page. We say what is visible on the canvas and nothing beyond it.

How it works on the wall

The format is landscape, in a ratio of about 4 : 3, and takes a wide wall. Because the
subject is dark in the lower half and light above, it works best at eye level or a little below
— the bright band at the horizon then falls straight into the line of sight. 40 x 30 cm and
50 x 40 cm suit a hallway or a small office wall. 60 x 40 cm and 70 x 50 cm are the usual
choices above a desk or beside a bookcase. 80 x 60 cm and 90 x 70 cm are the most balanced above
a sofa. 130 x 98 cm is exactly the size of the original and is offered; with
120 x 90 cm it is meant for large walls, where the sea opens out and the boats are given room.
Because the range of colour is a cool green and grey, hand-painted canvas art of this kind lives
best in warmer light or against a warm wall.

Hand-painted, not printed

This fine art reproduction is made with a brush, not a printer. A print lays the colour in an
evenly thin film, so sails, sea and sky come out equally smooth. Applied by hand, the white
crests on the water are set down with a thick short stroke and stand above the canvas, while the
sails are painted thin and flat. Light is returned differently by those two surfaces, so walking
past the wall the crests catch it before anything else does — a print cannot do that, because
there everything is the same thickness. Because it is handwork, every copy differs a little.

Custom sizes, frame, and the view on your own wall

If none of the eight sizes suits your room, we paint to the size you set yourself, keeping
the ratio of the sides so the boats are not squeezed. A 3D application is available for the
frame — it is for frame selection only and does not place the work in your
room. If you want to see how it will look on your own wall, that is the separate visualisation
service. The two do not overlap, so we do not mix them.

Ordering, lead time and approval before dispatch

The work is painted to order, so the lead time is 15 to 45 days, depending
on the size chosen and how busy the studio is. Before anything is sent we send you a photograph
of the finished piece for approval; only once you confirm do we stretch the canvas on a wooden
frame and prepare it for hanging. As wall decor it belongs where the light comes from the side.
The whole range, including further reproductions on canvas and famous paintings on canvas, is in
the Claude Monet gallery.

• Subject: two fishing boats with dark triangular sails on open water, a third sail in the haze at the left edge.
• Technique: oil on canvas; the sea in short strokes with thick white crests, the sails in quiet dark shapes.
• Sizes: landscape format, eight sizes from 40 x 30 cm to 130 x 98 cm; the largest is exactly the size of the original.
• Worth knowing: the lightest place is not the sky but a thin pink line of reflected light on the water.