Boat at Scheveningen, 1882 by Vincent van Gogh

Van Gogh drew this sketch in September, 1882. In his letter to this brother Theo, he wrote:

I have spent quite a lot of time in Scheveningen recently and one evening very fortuitously came across the arrival of a fishing smack. Near the monument is a wooden hut where a man is on the lookout. As soon as the smack was clearly in sight, the man came out with a large, blue flag, followed by a clutch of small children who barely reached up to his knees. It was obviously a great pleasure for them to stand near the man with the flag, and by doing so they clearly imagined they were helping the smack to come in. A few minutes after the man had waved his flag, another fellow on an old horse came along, who had to bring in the anchor.

After that the group was joined by various men and women-mothers with children too-to meet the crew.

When the smack was near enough, the man on horseback went into the sea and came back with the anchor. After that the men were brought to the beach on the backs of men wearing waders, and there was a noisy welcome for each new arrival. When they were all in, the whole lot marched home like a flock of sheep or like a caravan, with the chap on the camel - I mean on the horse-towering above everyone else like a tall specter.

Obviously all my attention was focused on trying to sketch the various incidents. I have also painted some of it, for instance, the group I have shown in this scribble.