Foaming white waves lap at a woman’s feet as she walks on the shore. The ocean scene is reminiscent of romantic fantasy art nudes and mythological narratives. Droplets trickle down her chest. Behind her extends the vast, tranquil ocean and an overcast, foreboding sky. The water is an intense turquoise and the sky a soft gray-blue. Her dark hair has gently been tousled by the wind and frames her face and neck, laying on her shoulders.
The image is soft with motion; her hand and hair are blurred and her body is rimmed with a thin halo of movement. There are only hints of detail throughout the composition, edges of the moving forms are implied rather than defined. This is a departure from the photographic tradition of crisply frozen subjects.
The horizon is defined by a bold swath of color. Her warm-toned skin beams amidst the otherwise cool palette. Gray seafoam mixes with salmon sand, swirling around her feet; beads of water are caught mid-flight.
She has a look of determination as her gaze directly addresses the viewer. She is confident in her nudity, making no attempt at modesty. Leaving behind the tides, she enters the calm serenity of the beach.
Seascapes are a subset of landscape art which also intersect with maritime artwork. Nymphs, mermaids, and sirens were often depicted in fantasy art nudes. In ancient stories, nymphs could be chaste or exhibit riotous animalism. They might be depicted as the object of desire for Apollo or a satyr. The 1700s and 1800s saw various depictions of nymphs in artwork. The interaction between humans, the natural world, and the mythical creatures was the subject of these fantasy art nudes. The moral ambiguity of the nymph diverges from the binary symbolism of good and evil.
