Karel Appel, a cosmopolitan Dutch artist, was one of the founding members of the CoBrA group, founded in Paris in 1948 and disbanded in 1951. This European group, made up of artists such as Asger Jorn and Pierre Alechinsky, set out to transcend the academicism of the time, such as abstract art, then considered too rigid and rational. These artists advocated spontaneous, experimental art, including a range of practices inspired by primitivism. They were particularly interested in children's drawings and the art of the mad, with international ambitions, faithful to the principles of the avant-gardes.
A contemporary of the Compagnie de l'art brut founded by Jean Dubuffet at the same time, CoBrA is part of this counter-cultural movement. He rejected established values and proposed a new departure, free from convention and claiming the spontaneity of the naive.

A traveling artist, Karel Appel lived in several countries, including France. He settled in Paris in 1950. His work was actively supported by critics such as Michel Ragon and Michel Tapié, who saw it as the European equivalent of the American abstract expressionism epitomized by Jackson Pollock. Throughout a career spanning 60 years, the artist displayed intense creative energy, painting, sculpting and printmaking, often using vivid colors that exalted his expressionist figuration. 
Karel Appel died on May 3, 2006, at the age of 85, in Zurich, Switzerland.
His works have been exhibited extensively worldwide and are included in the collections of prestigious museums: Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Tate Modern, London; M.N.A.M., Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, National Museum of Art, Osaka; Musée d'art moderne et d'art contemporain, Nice... 

The evocation of the pleasures of the sea is a classic subject made popular by painters of all eras. The sea, the beach and bathers inspire us with their infinite representational possibilities and the immense variety of suggested sensations.

Our painting by Karel Appel, created around 1980, features bathers on a beach facing the sea. Ambiguous figures: man, woman, child. The various characters who populate the site are presented on a single plane, the sea, clouds, rocks and sand. These human figures, which hint at their posture - sitting, lying or standing on the sand - seem to contemplate the sea and the horizon. The tonality and sobriety of the palette, and the presence of clouds, seem to indicate a low level of sunshine. When the sun hides... it's no longer time for swimming... In this case, the sea is no longer a place of joy and amusement, but rather a setting conducive to contemplative reverie, to the abandonment of the soul. 
Eyes and thoughts are lost in the immensity of the ocean...

Gustave COURBET                        
Le Calme, Marine, 1865-1867                    
Oil on canvas, Lons-le-Saunier, Musée des Beaux-Arts      

Édouard MANET
Sur la Plage, 1873
Oil on canvas, Paris, Musée d'Orsay