Beach at Low Tide (Mouth of the River)

Edgar Degas

Pastel on light brown wove paper

Musée d'Orsay

This intimate pastel on light brown wove paper depicts a quiet stretch of the Normandy coastline rendered in Degas's characteristically spare, atmospheric manner. The composition is dominated by a wide, flat expanse of beach and sea, with a low horizon and subtly layered tones of blue, green, and sandy brown, the warm tone of the paper itself functioning as an active element of the palette. Degas made the work during his 1869 visit to the Normandy coast, where he produced a series of more than forty small-scale landscape pastels—a remarkable departure from his better-known figurative subjects. Unlike his Impressionist contemporaries who worked primarily en plein air, Degas largely favored working from memory in the studio, valuing the transformative role of recollection over direct transcription of nature.