Description
Four figures wade hand in hand into the shallows, all of them turned away from us. On the horizon a small red sun stands just above the water, and sailing boats and a smoking steamer are spread across the sea. From the right a jetty with a railing cuts into the picture, and on it a few more figures – one in white, one wrapped in ochre cloth.
The whole scene is pitched on a warm ochre-orange; sea, sand and sky differ more in lightness than in colour. The strokes are soft and drawn out, and the edges of the bodies are lost in the water in places.
This is oil, not pastel: the canvas shows through the thin layers and the colour is fused rather than hatched. The scene stays a sketch on a large scale, which Degas never carried through to the last edge.
Our version is a hand-painted oil painting on canvas. Every canvas is painted individually, in the size and frame you choose.
