Eugène Boudin

Allard et Noël, Paris
Galerie Raphaël Gérard, Paris
Theo Goldschmidt, Essen
Gudula Simon-Weidner (fille du précédent)
Vente : Sotheby's, Londres, 30 novembre 1986, lot 157
Acquis lors de cette vente par le propriétaire actuel

Paris, Galerie Raphaël Gérard, Rétrospective Eugène Boudin, 1937, no. 12 (titré Marché à Trouville)

Robert Schmit, Eugène Boudin, 1824-1898, Paris, 1973, vol. I, no. 1050, illustré p. 368

The panel is sound. Under UV light, there are several large spots of pale fluorescence located mostly in the sky, which correspond to areas of old retouching. This work is in good, stable condition.
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signed 'E Boudin', dated '75' and inscribed 'Trouville' (lower left), oil on panel. Painted in 1875.

Bien qu'il ait beaucoup voyagé, Eugène Boudin reste attaché à représenter les côtes normandes et bretonnes qui lui sont chères. Il y trouve ses sujets de prédilection : rivage, port et activité liée à la pêche. L'artiste représente ici le marché de Trouville et ses étals de poissons. Peinte dans la pure tradition des maîtres hollandais du XVIIème siècle, tels que Ruysdael et Van Goyen, que l'artiste a longuement observés, cette  scène pittoresque représente avec une extrême minutie l'activité marchande de cette petite ville normande.

Soucieux de proposer dans sa peinture une reproduction sincère du monde de son époque, l'artiste joue un rôle d'initiateur dans le développement du mouvement impressionniste. Maître de Monet, qu'il incite, comme lui,  à peindre en plein air, et proche des idées professées par les futurs impressionnistes, l'artiste participe à la première exposition du groupe en 1874. Le marché de Trouville reflète ainsi cet esprit moderne qui anime l'artiste, désireux de représenter sans artifice l'instantané de la vie de la région qu'il affectionne. Boudin évite l'anecdote, le sentimentalisme et la dramatisation qui font la délectation des artistes académiques. Il ne décrit pas mais suggère en touches allusives la foule de femmes en costume traditionnel qui s'affaire et n'hésite pas, dans une démarche sérielle, à reprendre le même sujet à différentes heures du jour en variant les points de vue adoptés, se rattachant ainsi aux préoccupations contemporaines des impressionnistes.

Comme le souligne Denise Delouche, "Impressionniste, Boudin l'est par son travail en plein air, son attention quasi exclusive à la lumière, sa préoccupation atmosphérique [...], par la liberté de la facture [de ses toile], par l'utilisation du mélange optique ; mais la gamme colorée cultive surtout les tonalités discrètes et jour peu des contrastes simultanés" (Denise Delouche in. Eugène Boudin (catalogue d'exposition), Musée Eugène Boudin, Honfleur, 1992,  p.74)

No matter where he travelled in the world, Boudin always remained fondest of depicting the Brittany and Normandy coastlines that were so dear to him. It was there that he found his favourite subjects: seafronts, harbours and fishing ports. Here the artist represents the market at Trouville with its fish stalls. Painted in the refined style of the Dutch seventeenth-century masters he had studied such as Ruysdael and Van Goyen, this picturesque scene represents in minute detail the bustling market activity of the little Norman town.

Boudin was adamant that his painting should offer a faithful representation of the modern world; he thus became an inspirational figure for the Impressionist movement and even participated in the group's first exhibition in 1874. His ideas were similar to those expressed by the future Impressionists: he was Monet's teacher and encouraged the younger artist to follow his example and paint outdoors. This modern spirit is reflected in the market at Trouville where we see the artist's desire to represent without artifice the lively spontaneity of the regional life he held in such affection.  Boudin avoids the clichés, sentimentalism and theatrics that academic artists were so fond of. He does not depict but rather suggests with the lightest of touches the crowd of women in traditional costume conducting business and has no qualms about repainting the same subject at different times of day and changing his vantage point: techniques that brought him very close to the modern concerns of the Impressionists.

As Denise Delouche puts it, "Boudin is an Impressionist by the way he worked outdoors, by his almost exclusive focus on light, by his preoccupation with capturing atmosphere [...], by the freeness of his technique, by the use of optical effects; but the range of his palette leads to discrete tonal variation and does not play on juxtaposed contrasts" (Eugène Boudin (exhibition catalogue), Musée Eugène Boudin, Honfleur, 1992)