DOI Heft:
No. 227 (February 1912)
DOI Artikel:Frantz, Henri: A painter of the sea: Eugéne Boudin
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21156#0045
Eugene Boudin
“ LE PORT DE TROUVILLEi”
BY EUGENE BOUDIN
domain is yet more vast, for while he painted
more especially the Normandy coast, it is only just
to remember that he carried his investigations
much further, and that all the myriad aspects of
the ever-changing sea itself have been observed
and expressed by this artist. That he possessed a
wide and intimate knowledge of his subject his
numerous works triumphantly attest. In the Musee
du Luxembourg he is represented by some very
beautiful works, which we trust may be transferred
later on to the Louvre. At Honfleur there are in
the museum a certain number of pictures be-
queathed by Boudin to the town; at Havre the
Boudin Gallery contains a large collection of his
paintings and water-colours; and in most of the
important public galleries may be found examples
of this master’s admirable productions.
My excellent confrere and friend Gustave Geffroy
has admirably summed up and defined Boudin’s
talent in an able essay, in which he subtly analyses
and places before us a comprehensive appreciation
of the painter’s entire oeuvre. “ Eugene Boudin,”
he writes, “has skirted the coasts of Brittany bristling
with rocks, the Normandy cliffs and the Arlesian
dunes. Fascinated by the sea at all times of the
day and in all seasons of the year, he stopped
everywhere and noted all the different aspects ot
the same landscape. He explored all the creeks,
stayed at all the ports, and visited the mouths of
all the rivers. He painted life and solitude. The
dramas which are played out between the rocks
and the waters interest him quite as much as does
the bustle and stir of a seaport town. He is the
historian of alluvial formations, and of the little
pools which are left high up on the land by the
high tides. He also tells us of harbours crowded
with vessels, of docks overflowing with merchandise.
He knows how to depict high cliffs crowned with
verdure, to draw the stones of a quay, or to show us
against a sky full of fog and smoke the masts, the
pulleys, the ropes and cordage, the stout bulwarks,
and all the spider’s-web-like entanglements of the
rigging of a vessel. He is full of the poetry of the
sea and knows all the technique of navigation.”
It must not be imagined that this art of Boudin’s,
so sane, so clear, so direct in treatment, was
appreciated at once, and that the artist achieved
while in his youth the full success which was his
right. Unfortunately nothing of the kind occurred.
All through his life Boudin’s work was admired by
artists and by certain connoisseurs, but this did not
prevent him from having a pretty hard struggle and
25
“ LE PORT DE TROUVILLEi”
BY EUGENE BOUDIN
domain is yet more vast, for while he painted
more especially the Normandy coast, it is only just
to remember that he carried his investigations
much further, and that all the myriad aspects of
the ever-changing sea itself have been observed
and expressed by this artist. That he possessed a
wide and intimate knowledge of his subject his
numerous works triumphantly attest. In the Musee
du Luxembourg he is represented by some very
beautiful works, which we trust may be transferred
later on to the Louvre. At Honfleur there are in
the museum a certain number of pictures be-
queathed by Boudin to the town; at Havre the
Boudin Gallery contains a large collection of his
paintings and water-colours; and in most of the
important public galleries may be found examples
of this master’s admirable productions.
My excellent confrere and friend Gustave Geffroy
has admirably summed up and defined Boudin’s
talent in an able essay, in which he subtly analyses
and places before us a comprehensive appreciation
of the painter’s entire oeuvre. “ Eugene Boudin,”
he writes, “has skirted the coasts of Brittany bristling
with rocks, the Normandy cliffs and the Arlesian
dunes. Fascinated by the sea at all times of the
day and in all seasons of the year, he stopped
everywhere and noted all the different aspects ot
the same landscape. He explored all the creeks,
stayed at all the ports, and visited the mouths of
all the rivers. He painted life and solitude. The
dramas which are played out between the rocks
and the waters interest him quite as much as does
the bustle and stir of a seaport town. He is the
historian of alluvial formations, and of the little
pools which are left high up on the land by the
high tides. He also tells us of harbours crowded
with vessels, of docks overflowing with merchandise.
He knows how to depict high cliffs crowned with
verdure, to draw the stones of a quay, or to show us
against a sky full of fog and smoke the masts, the
pulleys, the ropes and cordage, the stout bulwarks,
and all the spider’s-web-like entanglements of the
rigging of a vessel. He is full of the poetry of the
sea and knows all the technique of navigation.”
It must not be imagined that this art of Boudin’s,
so sane, so clear, so direct in treatment, was
appreciated at once, and that the artist achieved
while in his youth the full success which was his
right. Unfortunately nothing of the kind occurred.
All through his life Boudin’s work was admired by
artists and by certain connoisseurs, but this did not
prevent him from having a pretty hard struggle and
25