By examining Manet’s 1874 Venetian canal paintings, we can see not only the effect of his Arcachon work on his portrayal of water but also the distinctions between his brushstrokes for slow-moving water and those for a lively sea. In the autumn of 1874, Manet did not go to the seaside but instead spent a couple of months in Italy, where, according to artist Mary Cassatt, “he was thoroughly discouraged and depressed at his inability to paint anything to satisfaction” (qtd. in Wilson-Bareau and Degener 85). In her conversation with well known art collector Louisine Havemeyer, whose husband had recently purchased Venice—The Grand Canal (Blue Venice), Cassatt claimed that Manet painted the piece en plein air on his final afternoon in Venice (Wilson-Bareau and Degener 85). 
Though scholars question the verity of Cassatt’s statement, Manet’s brushwork does appear swift in the strokes used to portray water. Based on our analyses of his work at Arcachon, we can see how the artist’s variety of colors and dense interplay of strokes does bring some three-dimensionality to otherwise nearly motionless water.
By 1874, Manet’s experiments with plein air painting had taught him how to make even a placid body of water appear lively. Though the brushwork is not as animated as Manet’s 1881 The Escape of Rochefort, the strokes are much livelier than those used in his pre-1871 seascapes. Even in The Battle of the U.S.S. “Kearsarge” and the C.S.S. “Alabama,” which is meant to capture a violent sea torn by vessels, the strokes appear lifeless in comparison to this naturally stagnant canal scene. As in Fair Weather at Arcachon, he incorporates a wide range of hues, including atypical water colors like tan and green, to catch the viewer’s eye. Manet’s water also draws our attention with its short, staccato strokes that bring a sense of three-dimensionality to the canal and make the water the scene’s most animated feature. Because the gondola itself is not generating motion, the animated water in Venice—The Grand Canal comes entirely from the artist’s brush. By overlapping strokes in a dense array of multihued dabs of paint, Manet is able to make his water aesthetically—if not physically—lively.
However, by comparing the brushwork used for the canal to that of Manet’s more rapid seascapes, we can better appreciate the artist’s techniques for conveying swiftly moving water. The sea is naturally more vivacious than canal water, and Manet’s more homogenous brushstrokes evidence that difference. Though he varies his strokes’ colors, Manet does gives almost all of the strokes the same shape, size, and amount of paint. Rather than making his strokes drier or more sweeping at the edges of the slow-moving gondola, he employs the same smooth juts of color around the craft to indicate its lack of effect on the water. In Venice—The Grand Canal, almost all of the strokes around the gondola are horizontal and dark, whereas his most animated seascapes employed swiftly swept wisps of white paint to indicate the boats’ wakes. Because he does not enliven the water broken by the vessel, Manet’s depiction of the water around the gondola provides a contrasting brushwork for us to better appreciate the way his brush portrays fast-moving ships.
Manet, Edouard. Venice—The Grand Canal (Blue Venice). 1874. Shelburne Museum, Shelburne, Vermont.