Courtesy of www.VincentVanGogh.org

Van Gogh moved to Arles in February 1888, which is a small town in south of France. Van Gogh was hoping to realize his original ambition here, to become a peasant painter. During his stay in Arles, he explored his environment by making paintings and drawings. He found so many objects he is interested at: the beach and the fishing boats at the sea is one of them. Instead of the dark straight lines observed in the previous pieces, this picture starts to have flow as well as a feeling of light and ease from the curved, non-uniform lines observed.

This drawing, Boats on the sea, was done using a pencil, reed pen, quill and black ink on wove paper. Today the drawing is owned by the Musee d'Art Moderne, Musees Royaux des Beaux-Art de Belgique, in Brussels.