BESIDE THE SEASIDE

• Rene Jerome Legrand 1953-1996
• Children playing in the sea
• Oil on Canvas  Signed
• 20 x 28.5 cm
• Sold

Post Brexit, ‘staycations ‘ are in vogue and families are increasingly spending their holidays at British seaside towns. We are returning to a gentler bucket and spade type holiday started in the Victorian era.

Rene Legrand was born in Nantes and grew up in Paris.  He attended the National School of Decorative Arts in Paris and the Academie de la Grande Chaumerie.  He was a member of the ‘Nouvelle’ Ecole de Paris , young people who were filled with aspirations of freedom and creativity after WWII. He exhibited at the Salon de Mai, Gallerie Sainte-Placide in 1951, the May Fair in New York 1953 and the Gallerie le Miroir, Brussels 1954 amongst others.

Here are two famous artists who painted people at the seaside.

This is one of five beach scenes painted by Monet in 1870. The lady on the left is probably Camille, Monet’s wife.

Potthast was an American Impresionist painter, well known for his paintings on the beaches of New York and New England.

The 20th century artist, Tom Durkin paints in a similar style.

The 1871 Bank Holiday Act , together with the spread and speed of rail travel meant that people could have day trips to the seaside. Most working class children went on excursions organized by their Sunday School.. Popular forms of entertainment at the seaside were Punch and Judy, donkey rides, sandcastles and ice-cream.

Not many people could swim in Victorian times so they paddled in the sea. They got changed into their swimwear , which could be hired,in wooden huts called bathing machines. These were then rolled into the sea. Men and women were initially segregated for reasons of modesty.

 

Lots of seaside towns built pleasure piers with lots of forms of entertainment ,like the theatre, to attract more people Also, as there would be large tidal changes meaning there were large parts of the day that people couldn’t see he sea, the pier allowed holidaymakers to promenade over to the sea at all times.

 

Hunstanton in North norfolk had it’s own pier for over 100 years but it was destroyed by storms in 1978.