Return from Fishing

One boy stands on the rocks with a long rod in his right hand and his left thrown up in mid-call, straw hat pushed back, trousers rolled and torn at the knee. The second kneels on the sand in red trousers and a red-striped jersey, head tilted up to him. Between them an open net spills a heap of crabs across the shore. A crest of white surf runs along the front of the base, modelled in the porcelain rather than painted on.