On the Jetty

c. 1869/1870

Eugène Boudin

Painter, French, 1824 - 1898

Eleven men, women, and children stand around a freestanding flagpole near a floating dock on a beach in this horizontal landscape painting. The scene is loosely painted, and dozens more people are gathered on the dock. The women wear dresses with long skirts in shades of charcoal gray, dark yellow, garnet red, and black, and one woman holds a muted blue parasol. The men wear suits in dark gray. A black dog stands and a white dog lies on the parchment-yellow beach near the flagpole, and the flag is white edged in blue. The dock angles away from us and to the right into the pale aquamarine-green water. Another dock in the distance lines the left third of the horizon, which comes about a third of the way up the composition. Puffy, smoky-tray clouds fill most of the blue sky above. The artist signed the lower right corner, “E. Boudin.”

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on wood

  • Credit Line

    Ailsa Mellon Bruce Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 18.4 x 27.4 cm (7 1/4 x 10 13/16 in.)
    framed: 30.8 x 39.7 x 3.8 cm (12 1/8 x 15 5/8 x 1 1/2 in.)

  • Accession

    1970.17.13

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Moïse Lévy de Benzion, Paris.[1] (sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 29 November 1949, no. 80). E. Slater; sold 1950 to (Alex Reid and Lefevre, Glasgow and London); sold 1951 to Capt. Edward H. Molyneux [1891-1974], Paris;[2] sold 15 August 1955 to Ailsa Mellon Bruce [1901-1969], New York; bequest 1970 to NGA.
[1] This painting was confiscated by the Nazi Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg (ERR) from the Levy de Benzion collection in France. The painting was selected by Hermann Goering on 25 November 1942 from the Jeu de Paume (OSS Consolidated Interrogation Report #2, The Goering Collection, 15 September 1945, Attachment 5, Liste der für die Sammlung des Reichsmarschalls Hermann Göring abgegebenen Kunstgegenstände, dated 20 October 1942, 1. Nachtrag, no. 67, National Archives RG239/Entry 73/Box 78, copy in NGA curatorial files). The records of the Munich Central Collecting Point indicate that the painting was recovered in Berchtesgaden and restituted to France on 18 April 1946 (Munich property card no. 5914; French Receipt for Cultural Objects no. 6A, item no. 950, National Archives RG260/Ardelia Hall/Box 286 copies NGA curatorial files). The painting was returned to the Levy de Benzion family on 10 May 1946.
[2] See letter from Alex Reid & Lefèvre, dated 18 August 1977, in NGA curatorial files.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1952

  • French Paintings from the Molyneux Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1952, unnumbered checklist.

1989

  • Paintings by Eugène Boudin from the National Gallery of Art, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1989, no cat.

2007

  • Eugène Boudin at the National Gallery of Art, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 2007, no cat.

  • Eugene Boudin, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, 2007-2008, no cat.

2009

  • Loan to display with permanent collection, Academy Art Museum, Easton, Maryland, 2009-2010, no catalogue.

Bibliography

1973

  • Schmit, Robert. Eugéne Boudin, 1824-1898. 3 vols. Paris, 1973: 1:no. 430.

1975

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 42, repro.

1978

  • Small French Paintings from the Bequest of Ailsa Mellon Bruce. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1978: 8, repro. (continuing exhibition beginning in 1978).

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 443, no. 632, color repro.

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 61, repro.

Inscriptions

lower right by later hand: E. Boudin 1870 [?]

Wikidata ID

Q20188722

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