On a bay ringed by cliffs, fashionable young Parisians enjoy the sun and sea. This scene was inspired by the beaches of Guernsey, an island in the English Channel where Renoir spent the summer of 1883 sketching. Although loosely defined (and unfinished at its right and upper edges), this picture wasn’t painted en plein air, outdoors on a Guernsey beach, but back in Renoir’s Paris studio, from studies he had made during his stay on the Channel.