Seascape-Storm Effect

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Following a health scare with his lungs in the early 1880s, Alfred Émile Léopold Stevens was instructed by doctors to move near the coast to breathe fresh air. Inspired by the setting, Stevens shifted from portraits of women in rich environments to dark, dramatic seascapes. In the late 1800s, many Impressionist artists believed in the wonder and mystery of the ocean, but Stevens carved out his own niche. Seascape—Storm Effect is less abstract than the work of his peers, capturing movement and mood with a variation of brushwork across water, sky, and horizon. The light of the painting breaking through the top left illuminates the sheer scale of the ocean, as the boats look quite small in comparison to the grand sea.

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