Interpretation
Boudin was from a seafaring family in Le Havre, a harbor and resort town on the coast of Normandy. Rather than go to sea, he ran a stationery shop and began to exhibit works by the Barbizon School artists—who were exploring new maritime subject matter that was becoming popular with visitors. With Constant Troyon’s encouragement and lessons in plein-air painting, Boudin abandoned his shop to become a professional artist specializing in coastal scenes. Here, a harbor in Brittany is shown with the fishing fleet putting in to port ahead of menacing storm clouds; old-fashioned sailing ships lie at anchor off the coast.
Information
- Title
- Fishing Boats at Kerhor
- Object Number
- y1986-71
- Maker
- Eugène Boudin
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dates
- 1872
- Dimensions
- 40.2 × 65.4 cm (15 13/16 × 25 3/4 in.) frame: 61.9 × 87.3 × 8.9 cm (24 3/8 × 34 3/8 × 3 1/2 in.)
- Credit Line
- Bequest of Clinton Wilder, Class of 1943
- Culture
- French
- Place made
- Europe, France
- Signatures
- Signed and dated lower left: E Boudin/72
Paul Detrimont, Paris (?until 1909; ?sale, Hotel Drouot, Paris, December 8, 1909, lot 7); anonymous sale, Hotel Drouot, Paris, June 29, 1942, lot 18; private collection, Paris (either before or after the 1942 sale); private collection, Madrid; Emil Bührle, Zurich (until 1960; sold to Marlborough Fine Arts); Marlborough Fine Arts, London (1960–61; sold to Wilder); Clinton Wilder, New York (until 1986; bequest to Princeton University Art Museum).
- Selection of important 19th century masters, (London: Marlborough Fine Art, 1960)., cat. no. 1
- Robert Schmit, Eugene Boudin, 1824-1898, (Paris: Schmit, 1973)., Vol. 1: p. 291, no. 815
- "Acquisitions of the Art Museum 1986," Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 46, no. 1 (1987): p. 18–52, p. 18
- Constance Schwartz, Normandy and its artists remembered: June 12-September 11, 1994, (Roslyn Harber, NY: Nassau County Museum of Art, 1994)., p. 16, pl. 6
- Nobuyuki Senzoku, et. al., Inshōha no senkusha Būdan ten = Rétrospective Eugène Boudin, (Japan: Āto Raifu, 1996)., p. 63, cat. no. 25
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