Breton Fishermen, Concarneau

Deep teal water fills most of this scene, broken by warm orange hulls and the pale glow of a small white boat resting in the foreground. Edgar Payne, an American painter better known for his grand views of the Sierra Nevada mountains, set aside the peaks for this quiet harbor at Concarneau, a fishing town on the coast of Brittany in France. A few fishermen sit calmly in their boats while larger sailing vessels crowd behind them, their masts rising against a soft, hazy sky. The paint is applied in thick, chunky strokes that give the water a shimmering, tile-like surface, almost like a mosaic made of light.

Payne taught himself to paint, which makes his sure sense of color and balance especially remarkable. During the 1920s he journeyed across Europe, drawn again and again to harbors and the boats that filled them, along with the working people who spent their days on the water. He plays warm against cool here, letting the orange boat at the center burn brightly against the surrounding blue. No big event is happening and no tale is being spun, just a simple and restful look at everyday life at the water's edge, captured by someone who plainly took pleasure in the calm.