Contact gallery for price		Jean-François Raffaelli French, 1850 -1924 A Day at the Beach Oil on paper mounted on canvas 27 1/2 x 36 inches (70 x 91 cm) Signed lower right Exhibited: Exposition Internationale d’Art de Venise, no. 1339 Jean Francois Raffaelli received his artistic training at the Ecole des Beaux Arts, where he enrolled in order to study under the French painter Jean-Leon Gérôme. He remained exclusively a painter until 1876 when he did his first etching. From this time on he was passionately devoted to printmaking, experimenting extensively with color etching. He expressed himself artistically through a variety of mediums including printmaking, sculpture, as well as singing in theaters and churches. The end of the 1880s marked a turning point in Raffaelli's work, when he transitioned from depicting the downtrodden working-class of the Paris suburbs, to creating mainly urban landscapes. Views of Paris would begin to dominate his work in the mid-1890s. The artist almost exclusively chose to represent well-known monuments, such as Notre Dame, the Invalides, the Sainte-Chapelle, or locations like the Place Saint-Michel and Champs-Elysées. Raffaelli began exhibiting his paintings at the Salon de la Société des Artistes Français in 1870. With the support of the painter Edgar Degas, Raffaelli’s works were accepted at the fifth and sixth Impressionist exhibitions in 1880 and 1881, where he presented more than thirty-five works: paintings, watercolors, drawings, etchings, and drypoints. By 1891 he exhibited at the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts. In 1894-95, Raffaelli planned to visit the United States for a week in order to attend the opening of an exhibition of his works at the American Art Association in New York. The week evolved into five months during which he traveled all over the country, giving lectures on art. He went back to New York at the end of 1899 to inaugurate an exhibition of his works at the Durand-Ruel Galleries. He was also a member of the jury for the Carnegie International Exhibition in Pittsburgh. Raffaelli died in 1924, having gained much success in both Europe and America. Our painting features adults and children leisurely strolling on a sunlit seashore. The delicately rendered figures fill the open expanse of sand, sea and sky. This beach scene is filled with many charming observations of children at play. For example, in the foreground a young boy with a toy shovel tugs his older sister along by the hand. More figures gently wind into the distance, adding great depth to the composition. The bold blues and bright reds of the beach goers’ attire punctuate the summery palette of pale yellows, greens and blues. This painting showcases Raffaeli’s keen observational skills, which captured the essence of ordinary people in everyday activities. It also highlights his technique of combining softly drawn lines over washes of color. This fluidity adds to the light and airy quality of the painting, and creates an idyllic beach scene.