View source for By the Seashore

{{Short description|Painting by Pierre-Auguste Renoir}}
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'''''By the Seashore''''' is a painting by [[Pierre-Auguste Renoir]] completed in 1883 and is now housed in the [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]] in [[New York City]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/437430|access-date=2021-10-25|website=www.metmuseum.org|title=Auguste Renoir &#124; by the Seashore }}</ref>

== History ==
Renoir made a trip to [[Italy]] in 1881-82 and was deeply influenced by [[Renaissance art]]. After this trip he began to explore a new manner of painting, different from [[impressionism]]. He started to emphasize contours and modeling, abandoned the principle that scenes should be painted outdoors to capture light and atmosphere.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|title=By the seashore - by Pierre-Auguste Renoir|url=https://www.renoir.net/by-the-seashore.jsp|access-date=2021-12-10|website=www.renoir.net}}</ref>

Late in the summer of 1883, Renoir spent about a month in [[St. Peter Port]], the capital of [[Guernsey]], and admired the rocks, cliffs and stunning view of [[Moulin Huet Bay]] in [[St Martin's, Guernsey|St. Martin]]. He painted the starts of fifteen pictures during his stay, most of which were finished later in his [[Paris]] studio. Guernsey lies 48&nbsp;km off the coast of mainland Normandy. Both share the same geology and Guernsey fulfills the "by the sea" criterion in the exhibition title.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal|last=House|first=John|date=1973|title=The Impressionists in London|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/877265|journal=The Burlington Magazine|volume=115|issue=840|pages=194–197|jstor=877265 |issn=0007-6287}}</ref>

However, ''By the Seashore'' is thought to have been painted in the artist's studio.<ref name=":0" /> The beach depicted here is probably not in the Channel Islands but near Dieppe, on the Normandy coast. The model was [[Aline Charigot]], his then girlfriend, whom he married in 1890.<ref name=":2" /> The arc of the sitter's dark eyebrows and saucily tilted nose in that pleasant, rosy-cheeked face are common to works by Renoir.

By the Seashore proto-typically reflects this period in Renoir's art. He worked with small compositions in the field that he then pulled together in more elaborate, larger works while in his studio. He was also playing with the disparity of space and scale between figure and background at this time. <ref name=":1" />

==Provenance==
The painting is in the collection of the Metropolitan since 1929 from the bequest of Mrs. H. O. Havemeyer.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Collins|first=Amy Fine|date=1987|title=Review of The Havemeyers: Impressionism Comes to America|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1358168|journal=Woman's Art Journal|volume=8|issue=2|pages=49–52|doi=10.2307/1358168|jstor=1358168 |issn=0270-7993|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[List of paintings by Pierre-Auguste Renoir]]

== References ==
<references />

== Sources ==
* The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (information table beside the painting)

{{Pierre-Auguste Renoir}}
{{Metropolitan Museum of Art}}
{{commonscatinline|By the Seashore (1883) by Pierre-Auguste Renoir in the Metropolitan Museum of Art}}

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[[Category:Paintings by Pierre-Auguste Renoir]]
[[Category:1883 paintings]]
[[Category:Culture of Guernsey]]
[[Category:Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art]]
[[Category:Water in art]]
[[Category:Ships in art]]