Edgar Fernhout (1912-1974)

The present lot is one of the serene seascapes Fernhout made between 1957 and 1959. Within these seascape paintings one can see the transition from realism to abstraction the artist gradually made. Little by little the motif disappears in the rhythm of the brushstrokes.
In the first few seascapes the line between the sea and the sky is still very clear. With short vertical brushstrokes next to each other, he creates long vertical lines that depict the moving waves. In these paintings Fernhout uses a lot of white that represents the crest. For the sky he used a light blue background with a few clouds that are made out of loosely placed white touches.

In the present painting Fernhout is already somewhat more abstract. The lines between the grey and beige sandy beach, the quiet blue green sea and the light blue cloudy sky are much more blurred than in the earlier seascapes. Fernhout almost didn’t use any short vertical brushstrokes anymore and all the thick horizontal lines overlap each other. Altogether this gives the painting a serene appearance, also because the horizon is on the exact horizontal middle axis of the canvas, dividing the painting in two halves of the same size. In this painting one can see an important change in Fernhout’s oeuvre: the former realistic forms dissolve in abstract, but powerful brushstrokes.