A turning point in Manet’s seascapes came in 1871 with Fair Weather at Arcachon, as it was at Arcachon that the artist first experimented with plein air painting, composing his entire work in the presence of the scene itself. Though his first-hand study of water during his sailing expedition had introduced him to the image of boats breaking the sea, it was only once he returned to the sea that he was able to most effectively portray that moment on canvas. Rather than generating a scene from his imagination or merely sketching a rough foundation out of doors and touching it up in the studio, he began to produce the piece in its natural atmosphere.
By capturing the sea in this more realistic setting, Manet was able to more skillfully depict the boats’ movement. Describing Fair Weather at Arcachon, Wilson-Bareau and Degener note that “the brushstrokes, pure or with colors blended on the canvas, are dashed and dragged across the surface with consummate assurance, generating an invigorating effect of [waves]” (Wilson-Bareau and Degener 80). Here Wilson-Bareau and Degener note the more animated brushwork, but they fail to connect it with the artist’s plein air work and how this shift in technique contributed to his strokes’ progression. The styles of brushstrokes Manet introduced in this painting set the stage for increasingly lifelike renderings of boats at sea.
In Fair Weather at Arcachon, Manet exhibits his attempts to test new forms of brushwork to more accurately capture boats’ movement through the water. Within the same sea, the artist experiments with several new forms to capture the movement of water around the boats, incorporating the sort of irregular contours Péladan deemed “haphazard” (Gronberg 238). For the first time in his seascapes, Manet uses erratically shaped strokes to depict waves in this painting. Rather than resorting to fluid, horizontal lines, the artist breaks from his old technique to experiment with contorted brushwork that generates movement in his sea specifically where it is broken by boats. The dark zigzag shape between the three boats on the right half of the painting and the dry wisps of paint ricocheting against the boats will appear in Manet’s later seascapes as he further develops his brushwork. He also experiments with an entirely “scratched” canvas, applying limited paint to effect a less polished surface than that produced in the studio. By using dry, airy strokes, he infuses the wake with life unprecedented by his earlier seascapes.
In Manet’s 1873 Fishing Boats, Berck, we can evidence further development of his dry brushstrokes based 
on his plein air studies two years earlier. Whereas in Fair Weather at Arcachon, he applied the sandpaper feel to his entire canvas, Manet overlaps coarse strokes with smoother ones to create a more three dimensional feel to the water specifically where it is broken by the main boat. He also develops his use of white paint from Arcachon, incorporating more billowy strokes of white to depict the boat’s wake. In contrast to the static boat in the background, the strokes around the center boat convey more action appropriate to a more active vessel. While the motionless boat is surrounded by horizontal navy lines, the moving boat calls for more airy strokes of different colors. His increased use of white around the sides of the boat helps create the sense of movement, and the integration of other colors overlain in sharp contrast adds to the sea’s three-dimensionality. In addition, Manet begins to experiment with shorter strokes for the main boat’s wake, working in a more staccato rhythm to the sea where it is broken by the vessel. Compared to his earlier seascapes, the brushwork of Fishing Boats, Berck brings more attention the boats’ movement.
Toilers of the Sea, painted later in 1873, shows us an even more honed technique of coarse brushwork to further accentuate the transient moment of water breaking in a boat’s wake. While in the last piece Manet’s strokes were slightly more rough around the boat, here he sharpens that contrast by employing smooth strokes in the background before shifting suddenly to dry brushstrokes only for the waves 
directly generated by the boat’s movement. By varying his strokes at this point, he brings our attention to the rough break of the water and makes the waves not only splash against the boat but to appear to splash off of the canvas itself. He also builds on the technique of irregular shapes, producing a mélange of different strokes. The different shapes clash, with gossamer threads of white battling with thicker dabs of paint, to produce a less finished, more lifelike quality to the scene. Tracing the strokes from the painting’s background to the very front, one can see the tension that increases to the point of the sea broken by the boat. The horizon line includes longer, smoother strokes resonant of his earlier works to depict the calmer, unbroken sea before building into sharper jabs of paint and finally into the wisps of white around the boat. Only by noting the way Manet develops the brushwork he introduced at Arcachon can we appreciate his ability to focus our attention on the boat’s instantaneous motion.
Manet, Edouard. Fair Weather at Arcachon. 1871. Private collection.
Manet, Edouard. Fishing Boats, Berck.. 1873. Private collection.
Manet, Edouard. Toilers of the Sea. 1873. Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.