Artwork
En route pour la pêche (Setting Out to Fish)
En route pour la pêche (Setting Out to Fish) is an oil painting by the Impressionist artist John Singer Sargent. It dates from 1878 and is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Art.
- Inscription
- Inscribed:lower right: JOHN S. SARGENT. / PARIS 1878
About this work
Women and children pick their way along the rocky beach at Cancale, buckets and boots in hand, heading for the shallow pools to gather shellfish. Light catches their clothes and the wet sand. Sargent painted it in 1878, early in his career, with quick strokes that hold the breeze and the figures' unposed ease.
Subject & Meaning
En route pour la pêche portrays a group of women and children from the Breton village of Cancale setting out across a beach dotted with puddles left by the low tide to gather shellfish for their evening meal, a scene also known as the Oyster Gatherers of Cancale. The figures carry baskets, wear clogs or go barefoot, and walk toward the sea while other inhabitants line the water’s edge, boats lie partly under sail in the background, and a lighthouse appears on a distant slipway. As a genre painting, the work records the everyday labor of oyster gathering, reflecting the community’s reliance on the sea and the rhythm of the tides, and it was executed with a deliberately academic approach in preparation for the 1878 Paris Salon.
Technique & Style
En route pour la pêche is an oil painting on canvas, executed in a horizontal format that measures roughly 79 cm high by 123 cm wide.
En route pour la pêche is an oil painting on canvas, executed in a horizontal format that measures roughly 79 cm high by 123 cm wide. The work presents a genre scene of women and children crossing tidal pools on the Cancale beach, rendered with a deliberately academic approach that contrasts with Sargent’s later society portraits and shows the lingering influence of French Impressionism. His handling reflects careful preparation for the 1878 Salon, with controlled brushwork that defines the figures, the wet sand, and the distant boats while maintaining a cohesive, light‑filled atmosphere.
The support is a canvas, and the medium is traditional oil paint, as recorded in the painting’s provenance and exhibition history.
History & Provenance
John Singer Sargent painted En route pour la pêche in 1878 as an oil on canvas genre scene depicting women and children gathering shellfish on the Breton beach of Cancale. He prepared the work carefully for the 1878 Salon in Paris, basing it on the subject of fishing for oysters at Cancale. The painting entered the collection of Admiral Augustus Ludlow Case, passed to Daniel Rogers Case in 1893, and was sold to the Corcoran Gallery of Art in 1917.
After the Corcoran’s dissolution, the work was acquired by the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., in 2014. The provenance chain is documented from Case’s private holdings through the two institutions.
The painting is currently held by the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., where it was acquired in 2014. Prior to this transfer, the work resided in the Corcoran Gallery of Art, also in Washington, having entered that institution's collection in 1917 after passing through the private collection of Admiral Augustus Ludlow Case and his son Daniel Rogers Case. The work was originally exhibited at the Salon of 1878 in Paris, a significant debut for this academic genre scene.
While specific accession numbers are not detailed in the provided records, the provenance chain links the 1878 creation directly from the artist's exhibition history to its long-term residence in the Corcoran before its 2014 move to the National Gallery.
Context
En route pour la pêche (1878) occupies a distinct position in John Singer Sargent's oeuvre, marking a deliberate academic approach that contrasts with the French Impressionist influences visible in many of his other early works. Unlike the high-society portraits that later defined his career in London, this genre scene depicting shellfish gatherers in Cancale was meticulously prepared for the 1878 Paris Salon. Scholarly attention, including Richard Ormond's Sargent and the Sea and Annelise K. Madsen's work on Sargent and Chicago's Gilded Age, contextualizes the painting within his broader artistic development and the specific era of the 1870s.
The work's exhibition at the Salon of 1878 cemented its early critical reception before it entered private collections and eventually major public institutions, serving as a key example of Sargent's pre-London period.
Overview
En route pour la pêche (Setting Out to Fish), painted by John Singer Sargent in 1878, depicts a tranquil scene from the French fishing village of Cancale. This oil on canvas work captures women and children as they prepare to gather shellfish and fish from the tidal pools along the shore. The painting highlights the daily rhythms of coastal life, rendered with a luminous quality and a sense of natural movement.
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Artist & collection
Artist
John Singer Sargent (; January 12, 1856 – April 15, 1925) was an American expatriate artist, considered the "leading portrait painter of his generation" for his evocations of Belle Époque and Edwardian-era luxury.
