It was Henri Matisse who suggested to Manfred Schwartz that he go to Étretat for the light. The advice given from a more mature Matisse to the younger Schwartz proved to be of great artistic value. The small coastal town of Étretat in the north of France offered Manfred Schwartz a fresh view in which to create a significant body of work in oils, charcoals and pastels. Later, when he returned to France he would create a series of hand-pulled stone lithographs of Étretat.

He created a number of landscapes and seascapes with views of the cliffs and the sea, but it was his close-up images of pebbles on the beach that enthralled art collectors. He focused on Étretat in a way that until then, no other artist imagined. Standing on the beach, holding paper to the surface of a rock, Manfred Schwartz used charcoal to pound out the images of pebbles in light and shadows, and how the sea-spray caused the pebbles to reflect the surrounding colors. He noticed everything, the small uneven differences and colors in the pebbles, the way the sunlight traveled across the beach and created new shadows throughout the day. Art critics have called this work pointillism, however, this is not correct. While pointillism uses small dots of color to form a larger image, Manfred Schwartz’ Étretat beach scenes present a “dot” for each individual beach pebble. The dots are complete images in themselves, and together, they form a section of the beach.

Major museums including the Guggenheim and the Whitney have exhibited Manfred Schwartz’ paintings and drawings of Étretat.


About Pen and Ink
“Pen and ink” is an art term referring to drawing or sketching with ink. There are several types of inks and types of pens and brushes used for application. Manfred Schwartz used a pigment-based ink in his series of Beach Figurations drawings. Pigment-based inks are preferred by artists for their rich color and high resistant to UV light.