Marée Basse à Trouville (Low Tide at Trouville)

In the foreground is a view of the sea from a sandy shore with a few ships in the distance. The horizon is low and the sky fills three-quarters of the picture surface. This painting may be dated to the years I865-6 when Courbet painted many paysages de mer at Trouville and became particularly fashionable, both for portraits and for sea studies. It may conceivably be identified with one of the twenty-five seascapes at Trouville mentioned in a letter by Courbet to Castagnary, dated 5 July, I869, as having proved a financial loss to him through the bankruptcy of his dealer Delaroche.