Pierre Marie BEYLE - Norman fisherwoman by the sea

Pierre Marie BEYLE
Lyon, 1837 - Chennevières-sur-Marne, 1902
Oil on wood panel
33 x 25 cm (43 x 35 cm with frame)
Signed lower right "Beyle".
Beautiful 19th-century gilded wood frame decorated with flowers and twisted ribbons

Pierre-Marie Beyle was an academic painter who focused on depicting the life of seaside sailors in Normandy in the 1880s, in the Yport region between Fécamp and Etretat, where Beyle spent his summers. Two of his masterpieces, paintings exhibited at the 1884 and 1885 Salons, can be seen at the Musée des Pêcheries in Fécamp: "Les Brûleuses de varech" and "La Mauvaise Nouvelle".
Beyle painted many portraits of fisherwomen. One of the interests of these portraits is the variety of clothes worn by these women. His paintings are varied portraits of fisherwomen, with the different costumes worn at the time in the Yport region.
In our painting, the fisherwoman is wearing a long skirt, dark socks, a strapless top and a red kerchief. This portrait is reminiscent of one by the same painter, auctioned at Christie's in Amsterdam on October 27, 1998 ("La jeune pêcheuse"), with the same skirt, little kerchief and black socks.
What's original about our painting, however, is that the fisherwoman here is not carrying a landing net, as in most of Beyle's portraits, but a net with two sticks. Crustaceans were fished on the beach using a landing net or a net carried at arm's length by two sticks. This portable net can be seen, for example, in Eugène Chigot's "Portrait de marin" on the beach (1887), now in the Musée du Touquet, or in Adolphe Cals' "Retour du pêcheur" near Honfleur (Collection George Viau).
What's more, the attitude of the woman in our portrait is very beautiful, with her head three-quarters towards the sea. This attitude can also be found in a fine painting by Beyle that sold at Christie's on October 24, 2006 ("Les jolies pêcheuses de coquillages"), with a similar garment apart from the fichu.

Ref: 69GV5UD5TF