Impressionists by the sea.(Report from Europe)

Until the middle of the nineteenth century, the seaside was the preserve of the local populations who earned their livelihood on the water. All that changed with the advent of the railways, when summer holidaymakers transformed the beaches, fishing villages, and modest ports into extensions of modern urban life. In France, as elsewhere, these coastal attractions also became important for artists, who sought to capture on canvas the social changes they witnessed there. Initially it was the locals, such as fishermen, who were the subjects of their works, but eventually the stylish holiday-makers themselves--visitors to such resorts as Deauville and Trouville in Normandy--made their way into the paintings. Artists such as Eugene Boudin, Edouard Manet, and Claude Monet used their new impressionist painting techniques to capture the effects of weather and light on the coastline, forgoing the usual process of making pencil sketches from which to work up paintings in the studio in favor of painting directly onto the canvas in the open air.

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