![Charles Sprague Pearce - Reading by the Shore [1883-85]](http://farm2.staticflickr.com/1677/24582313033_13f94155b6_o.jpg)
Mary Lublin writes, "Perhaps Reading by the Shore was executed near the Norman beaches [on the northwest coast of France] where Pearce spent several summers during the early 1880s. The work combines a brilliant light and free handling of paint in the landscape with a tightly rendered fashion portrait of Antonia [the artist's wife]. Pearce's palette is a[n] electrifying range of colours, with the tonal range of the background liberated from the conventions of knowledge, treated with little regard to local colour, or the tone inherent in an object. The pink sand beach with its lilac shadows recalls the colour investigations in Impressionist works by Monet in the 1870s, although Pearce does not attempt to dissolve form under the conditions of light and atmosphere.”
[Sotheby’s, New York - Oil on canvas, 29.8 x 46 cm]