T. Alexander Harrison

[1] A figure-piece he sent to the 1882 Salon attracted attention, a boy daydreaming on the beach, which he called Châteaux en Espagne (Castles in Spain) (1882, Metropolitan Museum of Art).

[3] In the 1885 Salon, he had a large canvas of several nude women called En Arcadie (1885, Musée d'Orsay),[4] a remarkable study of flesh tones in light and shade which had a strong influence on the younger men of the day.

Tall, lanky, and superbly handsome, he easily won all he appeared to care for, and much that he didn't want; but he had a religion—it was his art; an industry—it was his painting; and he had an untiring faith toward these.

He was enamoured of the successive opaline surfaces of the low incoming waves and strove for the Sea's gift as it comes to one facing it on long beaches.

[6]Harrison rented a ramshackle cottage near the Brittany town of Beg-Meil, and each evening raced to the dunes to watch the sun set over the ocean.