Station: [17] Frederik Hendrik Kaemmerer: „Elegant Ladies at Scheveningen Beach“ (1871)

After training as a draughtsman in The Hague, Frederik Hendrik Kaemmerer moved to Paris to pursue further studies — and ended up staying. He enjoyed great success, particularly as a portraitist. But the artist also repeatedly travelled back home to the Netherlands, as he did in 1871 when he created this enchanting, small-scale work in Scheveningen.

We see two young women in back view walking on the beach with their arms linked. ? Doesn’t it feel like we are walking right behind them? Because the people in front of us are seen from slightly below, it even seems as if we are climbing up a gentle slope. Two large white bows adorn their long blond hair. Such bows were fashionable in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The women’s shadows are very short, suggesting a time around noon. Are they, perhaps, looking for a place to have a small bite? A gentleman in a dark suit is coming towards them, and us. Other elegantly dressed ladies are sitting with beach umbrellas or walking on the beach.

Kaemmerer sought to record fleeting moments; he wanted to show what he sees. The light and weather conditions constantly change, especially at the coast. A cloudy sky hangs over the beach; the women’s dresses are swinging in the wind. In the blue of the sky you can see the hastily applied brushstrokes. But look: the faces and clothes lack detail. Sometimes they consist of nothing but a dab of paint. Capturing light reflections and reproducing an atmospheric mood are typical aspect of impressionist plein-air painting, which Kaemmerer increasingly turned to.