A sheer chalk cliff rises from the left edge of the canvas, its stratified face cut by a dark recess at the base and surmounted by a narrow strip of grass. Below, the shoreline is strewn with seaweed and stones, described in dense passages of red, ochre and violet that lead towards a shallow inlet of blue-green water. The sea extends beneath a pale sky, the horizon set high so that rock and foreshore dominate the composition. The viewpoint is low and close to the beach, heightening the sense of vertical ascent in the cliff face. Paint is applied in layered, directional strokes, particularly across the rock strata and foreground, where colour is built up to suggest the varied surface of stone and tidal debris. Painted during the artist’s campaigns along the Normandy coast, Falaise d’Étretat belongs to a sustained study of Étretat’s geological formations and their shifting coastal conditions.