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Lot Essay
Sur la plage à Portrieux was painted in the late summer of 1894 when Morisot decided to revisit Brittany which she had seen as a child. She took her daughter Julie and nieces Paule and Jeannie with her, renting a house at Le Portrieux on the Channel coast called La Roche-Plate for 400 francs. In a letter to Stephane Mallarmé, Morisot explained her decision to holiday in Brittany: "We made up our minds to go to Brittany just by looking at the little posters in the waiting room of Gare Saint-Lazare...My nieces are with me; we walk on the shore, in the open country and everything would be charming if the place were not pretty, inviting me to paint it" (quoted in D. Rouart, ed., Berthe Morisot, Correspondence, London, 1987, p. 207).
Morisot invited Pierre-Auguste Renoir to visit during her stay in Le Portrieux, but due to other commitments he was unable to join her. Renoir wrote: "I am truly distressed at not being able to accept your invitation...Brittany is quite pleasant, not as rainy as Normandy. Unfortunately it is rather far away--fortunately so, because otherwise it would be crowded with dreadful people...And so, enjoy yourself; bring back some of those lovely sea views, which are so beautiful in Brittany, with the water clear all the way to the edge, and white-clad Julies against a background of golden isles" (quoted in ibid.).
Sur la plage à Portieux exemplifies the artist's late style. Drawing became increasingly important to Morisot in the late 1880s, and by 1887 she was using pastel, watercolor, charcoal, red chalk and colored pencils to make preparatory sketches for her paintings. The smooth contours and elongated brushwork of the present work stand in marked contrast to the frenzied brushwork of her earlier paintings, clearly illustrating the results of her new working methods. The influence of Renoir, with whom Morisot had become increasingly friendly in the last decade of her life, is also evident in the present work.
Morisot invited Pierre-Auguste Renoir to visit during her stay in Le Portrieux, but due to other commitments he was unable to join her. Renoir wrote: "I am truly distressed at not being able to accept your invitation...Brittany is quite pleasant, not as rainy as Normandy. Unfortunately it is rather far away--fortunately so, because otherwise it would be crowded with dreadful people...And so, enjoy yourself; bring back some of those lovely sea views, which are so beautiful in Brittany, with the water clear all the way to the edge, and white-clad Julies against a background of golden isles" (quoted in ibid.).
Sur la plage à Portieux exemplifies the artist's late style. Drawing became increasingly important to Morisot in the late 1880s, and by 1887 she was using pastel, watercolor, charcoal, red chalk and colored pencils to make preparatory sketches for her paintings. The smooth contours and elongated brushwork of the present work stand in marked contrast to the frenzied brushwork of her earlier paintings, clearly illustrating the results of her new working methods. The influence of Renoir, with whom Morisot had become increasingly friendly in the last decade of her life, is also evident in the present work.