Charles Kuwasseg (1833-1904) was a French landscape artist, and the son of Austrian painter Karl Joseph Kuwasseg. Once a sailor, he later received his formal training in art under Jean-Baptiste Durand-Brager and Eugène Isabey. Influenced by the Barbizon School, he painted land and seascapes around the coasts of Brittany and Normandy, and scenes of Paris. The four paintings below showcase his skill in evoking the atmosphere of life by the sea.

Buildings or dwellings near water often take the central stage in Kuwasseg’s works, and this further emphasises the intimate relationship of a man with the sea in his paintings. The buildings’ close proximity to water means that we can deduce that water and its mood govern virtually all the aspects of these people’s lives. In line with the Barbizon school, the realism here is offset by romantic artistic overtones. There is much colour, but also softness of form.