Eugene Boudin (1824-1898)
Boudin, a French painter was noted for his seascapes and coastal scenes. He spent most of his life on the coasts of Normandy. The son of a sailor, Boudin, owned a stationery and picture framing store in the French Town of Le Havre. In his spare time he loved to paint also, and often hung his own works in the shop. They were considered sketchy and rough by the local townspeople. At the age of 25, he had been given a scholarship to study art in Paris. From 1847 to 1848, most of his time was spent in Paris. He was again in Paris from 1851 to 1854 for formal study, financed by a grant from the municipality of Le Havre. He then returned to the coast to continue painting almost in the same style he had done before. His oil paintings, drawings and watercolors exceeding 6000 in number, depict the sea resorts of the English Channel portraying the sea resorts of the English Channel. He was one of the first artists to paint in the open air (en plein air) rather than in a studio. He was responsible for introducing Claude Monet to this method of painting outdoors. Boudin was an influence on the impressionist painters, and he participated in the first impressionist exhibition in 1874. He prefigured Impressionism, marking the link between Corot and the Impressionists.
His Works
Although much of his early work is lost, it appears it was in Paris that he made still lifes of fish and
game inspired by Dutch and Flemish paintings of the 17th century, and French paintings of the 18th century. His best-known paintings are beach scenes of Brittany, Normandy, and the Netherlands (Beach Scene, Trouville 1863, Approaching Storm 1864, La Plage de Trouville 1865, Bathers on the Beach at Trouville 1869) . Noted for the pervasive clarity and directness of his outdoor scenes, Boudin excelled in depicting nuances of light and atmosphere. Boudin's overriding concern was light, and in his dabs of pure color and loose and delicate brushwork. His seascapes and beach scenes were painted at various times of the year and in changing weather conditions. Although often described as 'the painter of beaches', the beach itself in his painting (The Coast of Portrieux, 1874) only occupies a portion of the canvas and it is the large, luminous sky that predominates in the work. Boudin worked directly from nature on the Normandy coast. Some of Boudin's paintings still have sand from the Trouville beach, adherring to the bottom of the canvas.