One July day, a painter captured a colorful glimpse of the beach and bathers at Far Rockaway

On July 13, 1902, painter Robert Henri took a day trip to Far Rockaway. Unlike more raucous Coney Island, this easternmost stretch of the Rockaway Peninsula had become a popular seaside destination for New Yorkers seeking peaceful relief from sweltering urban heat.

After sketching a scene of visitors streaming from a bathing pavilion to the beach, Henri “described his idea for the final oil in his diary: ‘blue sky. sun yellow pavilion…tel[ephone] pole brilliant colors of people on beach, walk and in pavilion. blue strip of sea,'” states the 1994 book, American Impressionism and Realism, per Sothebys.com.

The above painting is the final oil, simply titled “At Far Rockaway.” Henri at the time was moving away from Impressionism to a more realist style. But this rich landscape has an Impressionist feel—the pops of color from the parasols, hats, and willowy bathing dresses as well as the contrast of blue hues in the sky and ocean.

The visitors are mostly female; the contours of the sand appear like a soft embrace. American flags, perhaps leftover from the Fourth of July, wave in the breeze before a placid “blue strip of sea,” as Henri put it.

“Painted four years after the Rockaways were officially absorbed into the City of Greater New York, “At Far Rockaway” depicts the elevated boardwalk, a main attraction in the area, or one of a number of popular bathing pavilions offering comfort and shade to beachgoers,” stated Sotheby’s, which dolf what the auction house called a “celebration of modern seaside leisure.”