Eugène Boudin

Arnold & Tripp, Paris
Bernheim-Jeune, Paris
Stumpf Collection, Paris (sold: Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 17th May 1906, lot 10)
Private Collection, USA (sold: Christie's, New York, 6th November 2001, lot 27)
Richard Green, London (purchased at the above sale)
Acquired from the above by the present owner in 2002

Paris, Galerie Schmit, Eugène Boudin, 1965, no. 43, illustrated in the catalogue

Robert Schmit, Eugène Boudin, Paris, 1973, vol. I, no. 942, illustrated p. 336

The panel is sound. Apart from some minor areas of retouching along all four edges, visible under ultra-violet light, this work is in very good condition. Colours: Overall fairly accurate in the printed catalogue illustration, although the blues are brighter and stronger in the original.
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Trouville, scène de plage is an eloquent example of Boudin's favourite subject, that of fashionably dressed figures gathered on the beach at Trouville. Having settled in Paris after his marriage in 1863,  Boudin travelled every summer to Trouville, where he had found the inspiration to paint endless variations on the themes most dear to him. Jean Selz wrote: 'What fascinated Boudin at Trouville and Deauville was not so much the sea and the ships but the groups of people sitting on the sand or strolling along the beach: fine ladies in crinolines twirling their parasols, pompous gentlemen in top hats, children and little dogs playing on the sand. In the harmony of the colours of the elegant clothes he found a contrast to the delicacy of the skies' (J. Selz, Eugène Boudin, New York, 1982, p. 57).

Painted on the verge of Boudin's official recognition as a painter, the present work is a wonderful testimony to the artist's confident brushwork and mature style. As in many of his paintings, Boudin has dedicated half of the composition to a vast sky, its subtle nuances and neutral tones serving to emphasise the proximity of the figures below. As his fellow painter, Gustave Courbet, noted, 'My God, you are a seraph, Boudin! You are the only one of us who really knows the sky' (quoted in Ruth J. Benjamin, Eugène Boudin, New York, 1937, p. 46). Boudin's ability to capture the fleeting effects of sunlight on sumptuous fabrics, and his bold use of distinct planes to convey perspective, are testaments to his dedication and foresight as an artist.