Coastal landscape

The chalky cliffs of Normandy rise out of this coastal scene by Gustave Courbet, painted around 1860. Bathed in the soft light of a slightly overcast day, the white rock face stretches toward a dark cliff on the right, while a small sailboat drifts far out on the blue water. The stony foreground, worked in thick, earthy tones of brown and rust, gives the whole picture a grounded, almost rugged feel. The setting resembles the shoreline near Étretat, a place Courbet came back to again and again during his visits to the seaside towns of the French coast.

Courbet led the Realist movement, which was all about painting life as it truly appeared rather than making it prettier or more heroic than it was. That honesty shows up everywhere here, from the rough handling of the rocks to the plain meeting of sea and sky. Rather than telling a story or reaching for grand emotion, the painting simply records a quiet stretch of coast on an ordinary day. The years since have only made that Étretat coastline more famous, since painters like Claude Monet were later drawn to its striking cliffs and arches too.