Fishing for Oysters at Cancale
1878
Before John Singer Sargent became the go-to portraitist for Gilded Age high society, he was out in the mud capturing the gritty reality of working-class life. Painted in 1878 in the French coastal town of Cancale, this scene shows local women hauling baskets of oysters under a brilliantly turbulent sky. Notice the barefoot child and the distant lighthouse—Sargent masterfully balances the heavy, dark clothing of the laborers against the shimmering, wet sand and expansive clouds, proving he was a master of light long before he painted his first millionaire.
Location: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
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