The story

The tide went out. They went with it. Every day. Baskets, wooden clogs, wet sand, kids in tow. While the men were in the Atlantic for six months, these women were running the most famous oyster operation in France. The beds, the harvesting, the sorting, the contracts, the harbor law. All of it. Sargent was 21 when he painted this. He came to Cancale looking for rustic charm to show at the Paris Salon. He found a hard business.

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Women's Business

Movement
Watercolour
Artist
John Singer Sargent

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