Le Havre

1883

Eugène Boudin

Artist, French, 1824 - 1898

We look across a channel of choppy water at three masted ships, a sailboat, at least one steamer, and three rowboats in this horizontal seascape painting. The white peaks and waves are painted with pearlescent shades of white, gold, ice blue, and the faintest pink tinge. The steamer belches gray smoke along a coastline in the distance to the left. The sailboat is farther back. Two of the three masted ships edge closer to us to the right of the sailboat. The ship is first almost halfway across the canvas from the left edge, and the second, which flies a flag vertically striped with blue, white, and red, is about two-thirds of the way across. The third masted ship is much farther away near the right edge of the composition. Two of the long rowboats are near the bottom left corner of the painting and the third is far out by the third ship. The horizon comes about a quarter of the way up the painting. Puffy gray clouds pile up on the horizon and are edged in white where they face open blue sky along the top edge. Cloud cover is streaked around the most distant ship, suggesting that a storm has begun. The scene is loosely painted with visible brushstrokes throughout. The artist signed and dated the painting in the lower left corner, “E. Boudin. 83” and labeled the location to the right, “Le Havre.”

Media Options

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Artwork overview


Artwork history & notes

Provenance

William B. Norman [d. 1906];[1] sold 1899 to (Durand-Ruel et Cie, Paris and New York). Edward C. [d. 1915] and Mary Griffin [1855-1937] Walker, Willistead Manor, Walkerville, Ontario, and Washington, by 1905;[2] bequest 4 May 1937 to the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington; acquired 2015 by the National Gallery of Art.
[1] Norman, a well-known auctioneer, established the Fifth Avenue Auction Galleries in 1883, and later the Tiffany Studios.
[2] The painting was included in a 1905 exhibition of the Walker collection at the Detroit Museum of Art.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1905

  • Exhibition of Paintings Lent from the Private Collection of E. Chandler Walker, Detroit Museum of Art,1905, no. 30, as Marine.

1958

  • A Selection of Paintings from the Edward C. Walker and Mary Walker Collection, Willistead Art Gallery, Windsor, Ontario, 8-29 October 1958, no. 2, as Marine.

1959

  • French Masterworks: A Loan Exhibition from the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Museum of New Mexico, Santa Fe, 1 July - 13 August 1959.

1976

  • Jongkind and the Pre-Impressionists: Painters of the Ecole Saint-Simeon, Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, Massachusetts; Sterling and Francine Clark Institute, Williamstown, 1976-1977, no. 44, repro.

1983

  • La Vie Moderne: Nineteenth Century French Art from the Corcoran Gallery, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington; Columbus Museum of Arts and Sciences, Georgia; Mary and Leigh Block Gallery, Northwestern University, Evanston; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Tampa Museum; Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha; Akron Art Museum, 1983-1985, no. 32, repro.

Bibliography

1968

  • Jean-Aubry, Georges, with Robert Schmit. Eugene Boudin: 1824-1898. Paris, 1968: 69-70.

1973

  • Schmit, Robert. Eugéne Boudin, 1824-1898. 3 vols. Paris, 1973: 2:no. 1725.

Inscriptions

lower left: E.Boudin.83.; lower right: Le Havre

Wikidata ID

Q46631124


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