The Height of the Season

Sickert explores the meeting of sea and overcast sky in this image of the beach at Dieppe, a resort town on the coast of Normandy. While using a vertically oriented format, Sickert cleanly divides his composition into flat, horizontal bands and applies the blue green of the calm sea and the gray of the low-hanging clouds in thick but evenly applied strokes that run the width of the panel. Although Sickert defines the horizon line with linear precision, he reveals a lighter, more improvisational touch in the puffy white clouds, the patch of blue sky, and the throngs of holiday makers who mark the water’s edge.