La Bocca

In the pictureUnder a pale blue sky, a sandy beach spreads wide toward the lower right, with heaps of reddish-brown rocks here and there. On the hill to the right, several towers ringed with crenellated battlements rise among palms and other trees, with a wall and an arched bridge in front of them. In the sea on the left are a boat with a triangular sail and hazy distant mountains. In the right foreground, a figure in a long coat stands beside a wooden frame with a child, and in the middle of the beach a crouching person is drawn small. At lower right is the inscription '"La Bocca" H.V. Burgy Janv 82'.

BackgroundLa Bocca is a beach district west of Cannes in the south of France. Judging from the date written at the bottom, it was painted in January 1882, in the depths of winter. All the collection record tells us about Henry Victor Burgy is "French, died 1901," and this painting came to the museum as a bequest he left on his death. His Antibes, from February of the same year, and Château de Vouzan, from 1888, are also on this site, so you can follow his travels. One interpretation sees the figure beside the wooden frame on the right as a painter working outdoors.

Puzzle tipSky and sand fill most of the picture, so many pieces look alike. Fit the white towers of the castle on the right, the dark trees and the red rocks first, then set the height of the horizon with the sailboat and distant mountains on the left. The beach is gray toward the sea and yellowish at lower right, so join pieces in the direction the color changes. The sky grows bluer toward the top and paler toward the bottom, so fill it in that order. 48 pieces is about right.