Alfred Stevens: Sea, Sky and Shore explored the lesser-known marine paintings of Alfred Stevens (1823–1906), focusing on the atmospheric seascapes he produced during his summer stays on the Normandy coast in the 1880s.
Best known for his elegant depictions of fashionable women in Second Empire Paris, Stevens turned increasingly to the sea after travelling to Sainte-Adresse on the advice of his physician. Over the following years he returned regularly to the Normandy coast, finding in the changing sea, sky and shoreline a new and inexhaustible subject. Working largely on mahogany panels, he captured shifting weather and light through fluid passages of paint, vigorous brushwork and areas of rich impasto.
The exhibition brought together a selection of these Normandy seascapes and coastal paintings, revealing a more spontaneous side of Stevens’s practice and the distinctly Impressionistic qualities of his later work. It also continued John Mitchell Fine Paintings’ long association with the Belgian artist, whose work the gallery has researched, exhibited and championed for more than fifty years.