When the summer has come to an end and everyone is back in school, I long for those hot summer days at the beach, feeling the sand on my feet and smelling the salt in the air.

Howard Pyle transports you to that beach in The Wreck, however, it is not that ideal beach scene we are all dreaming about.

Image

As the title suggests, this piece depicts a ship wreck close to the shore of an unknown beach. The ship appears to have been through a lot as the bow is falling apart and there appear to be objects floating away. Those objects could be people on rescue boats getting away from the wreck, however it is hard to tell as Pyle painted that area quickly with few brushstrokes. There is a larger sailboat in the background that does not appear to have been affected by whatever has wrecked the boat in the foreground as its white sails are going strong.

The main colors of this painting are green and blue. Pyle used a lot of green in the ocean to make it appear more naturalistic as well as to contrast with the blue sky. The sky is a bright shade of blue scattered with white wispy clouds. As the sky meets the horizon it turns a warm shade of pink, which reflects onto the water. The crashing waves have an impasto quality, meaning the paint was applied thickly to the canvas and is protruding off the canvas. This makes the viewer (or at least me) want to reach out and touch the painting and go to this beach.