Nº 88
Reading edition
Hendrik Willem Mesdag DUTCH: 1831-
THE FISHING FLEET
Height, 24½ inches; length, 52 inches
Near the foreground on the right a large fishing-boat, with sails partly lowered and the nets hoisted to the masthead, is stranded in the shallow water. The fishermen are unloading the catch, wading through the water and carrying the heavy baskets on their shoulders. To the left, and beyond, other craft are lazily drifting on the quiet water, which is broken near the shore by long lines of low breakers, and the view extends across the shimmering sea to where the horizon is lost in the summer mist, broken only by the shadows of the shapes of distant vessels. Small scuds drift across the sky, glowing with the warm light of the sun, which is far below the horizon.
Signed at the right, H. W. Mesdag, 1874.