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Scheveningen Sands
Scheveningen Sands

Scheveningen Sands

Artist (Brussels, Belgium, 1823 - 1906)
Date1884
Mediumoil on canvas
ClassificationsPaintings And Drawings
DimensionsOverall: Height: 27.2 cm, Width: 35.2 cm
Frame: Height: 50 cm, Width: 58 cm
AcquisitionPresented in 1918 by Sir James Murray.
CopyrightOut of copyright - CC0
LocationView by Appointment - Aberdeen Treasure Hub
Object numberABDAG003703
About MeIn spite of his English-sounding name Alfred Stevens was born in Brussels and spent most of his artistic career in France. Here he is painting at Scheveningen in the Netherlands. It had become a favoured spot for artists - the famous Dutch artist Jozef Israels popularized it when he went there in order to paint the fishing people who drew their boats onto the beach as there was, unusually, no harbour.

By the end of the nineteenth century Scheveningen had become a popular holiday resort and the figures in this painting are clearly relaxing on the beach rather than working. In his work Stevens often reflected the contemporary Parisian interest in japonisme and here there is a mood that is also reminiscent of James McNeill Whistler's "symphonies" that were having such an impression on his contemporaries in both France and Britain at this date.


More About Me

From the 1880s Stevens spent his summers by the sea on the advice of his doctor. The scene he’s painted here certainly looks relaxing.