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Your galleryCliffs on the Sea Coast: Small Beach, Sunrise (Falaise au bord de la mer, vu Petite Plage, soleil levant)
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Trace the shoreline away from the dark foreground rocks, then compare the steep green-topped cliff with the nearly level sea horizon.
A narrow beach leads between the cliff and the sea in this coastal painting. Courbet contrasts the textured shore and upright rock face with flatter expanses of water and sky. The understated light gives the scene a different rhythm from a dramatic storm: small changes of tone carry much of the atmosphere.
Oil on canvas · 35.9 × 60 cm · Art Institute of Chicago · Realism
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Details and source
- Museum title
- Cliffs on the Sea Coast: Small Beach, Sunrise (Falaise au bord de la mer, vu Petite Plage, soleil levant)
- Artist
- Gustave Courbet (French, 1819–1877)
- Date
- 1865
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 35.9 × 60 cm (14 1/8 × 23 1/2 in.); Framed: 53.7 × 77.5 × 8.9 cm (21 1/8 × 30 1/2 × 3 1/2 in.)
- Credit line
- Gift of Lily Ireland
- Image license
- CC0 1.0 · Public domain
- Museum record
- Art Institute of Chicago
Galler’s rooms and hanging scale are imagined. The image is the museum’s original digital reproduction.