A Beach
- Artist: Jacob Maris
- Date: probably late 1870s or 1880s
- Medium: oil on canvas
- Museum: The National Gallery
- Collection record: The National Gallery website
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About this artwork
This is "A Beach" by Jacob Maris, painted in the Dutch north. The scene depicts a serene seaside landscape, with a lone fisherman hauling nets alongside two beached fishing boats. A few birds are the only sign of wildlife.
You can see how Maris has used broad brushstrokes to create an impression of agitated windswept clouds and breaking waves on the shoreline. The colours are mainly limited to ochres, greys and browns for the sandy beach, with a narrow band of indigo blue indicating the sea.
What's striking about this painting is how Maris has created a sense of expansive space despite the small size of the canvas. He achieves this by giving over most of the picture to the sky, which is a technique often used by other northern European artists, particularly Dutch painters like Jan van Goyen and Jacob van Ruisdael.
The painting's style is characteristic of Maris' late work, with thick paint creating textured effects that add to the sense of movement in the scene. Overall, "A Beach" is a beautiful example of 19th-century Dutch landscape painting.
See it in person
A Beach hangs in The National Gallery on Trafalgar Square, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
