Eugène Boudin

Gerard, Paris
Private Collection
Osborne, New York (acquired on December 8, 1979 by Ivor Massey of Richmond, VA)
Thence by descent

Robert Schmit, Eugène Boudin, 1824-1898, vol. III, Paris, 1973, no. 3114, illustrated p. 198

Canvas is lined. Surface is slightly dirty. Under UV light: scattered spots of inpainting in the sky along the right, top, and left edges to address frame abrasion; there is a 2 by 3 inch area of inpainting in the sky above left of the tower. A few spots in the middle of the upper left quadrant and several other scattered pindots along the horizon line and near the bottom edge. Overall good condition.
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Boudin, pioneer of the plein air techniques that would give birth to Impressionism in its fullest form, captured the vibrant freshness of coastal France from Normandy to the Côte d'Azur.  The artist himself wrote, "Everything painted on the spot has a strength, vigour and vivacity of touch that can never be attained in the studio. Three brushstrokes from nature are worth more than two days in the studio at the easel" (quoted in The Birth of Impressionism, from Constable to Monet, Glasgow, 1997, p. 23). He later added, "Sometimes when I'm out walking in a melancholy frame of mind, I look at this light which floods the earth, which quivers on the water and plays on clothes and it is frightening to think how much genius is required to capture so many difficulties, how limited a man's spirit is, not being able to input all these things together in his head. And then again I sense that the poetry is there and sense how to capture it. I sometimes catch a glimpse of what would have to be expressed" (quoted in ibid., p. 90). A painter of leisure, labor, and landscape, Boudin's prolific oeuvre presents a chronicle of the seashore as a playing space for the breadth of humanity.

The present work was executed during Boudin's retreat to Antibes in the south of France, a trip taken to mend the artist's ailing health. The resort city's pleasure boats, fortifications, and nearby mountains provided Boudin with ample subject matter for his canvases. Voyages to a number of coastal destinations punctuated the last decade of the artist's life, and before he died he industriously painted the Côte d'Azur, Abbeville, Havre, Trouville, Deauville, and Venice.  Boudin's biographer Ruth L. Benjamin remarks that the artist remained alert and involved in discussions of literature and art even in his temporary removal from his home in the north: "His mind was clear and progressive as ever. In his letters he discussed the poetry of Verlaine and wrote that he was planning to attend the Théâtre de l'Oeuvre...Everything new and alive was of interest to Boudin" (Ruth L. Benjamin, Eugène Boudin, New York, 1937, p. 103).