Eugène BOUDIN (1824-1898)

At a time where conventional painting was done in an atelier, Eugène Boudin was a precursor of painting in the open air.

• One minute with Eugène Boudin | Watch the video
• Selection of works currently available | See the works
•  Eugène Boudin, precursor of impressionism | Read more
• Latest exhibitions | Read more

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One minute with Eugène Boudin

Let’s discover in video “Deauville. Le bassin”:

Selection of works by Boudin currently available

 

 

Price upon request. Contact us.

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Eugène Boudin, precursor of impressionism

“Three brush strokes from nature are worth more than two days at an easel”.

As the son of a sailor, his youth was spent in the mist and gusts of wind. Boudin was familiar with both financial and psychological misery until 1859, the year of his move to Honfleur. Dumas’ son bought his work. Courbet encouraged him.

“You are the only person who knows the sky.
We can imagine the season, the time of day and the wind”.
Charles Baudelaire, about Eugène Boudin pastels

In 1860 Boudin began to paint beach scenes called crinolines, elegant relaxed-looking friezes where the refined chromatics stands out from a background of sea and sky, which was the source of his fame.

In 1880 Durand-Ruel purchased all of his work.

Boudin remained very attached to Normandy all his life. He was the painter par excellence of “wet suns”, “scrambled skies”, changing light, fugitive atmospheres, pearl grey and the lapping of ports and their large three-masted boats – infinite research themes.

Boudin is the uncontested master of marine atmospheres and meteorological wonders as Baudelaire said. His simmering touch exalted the values of sketching and suggestion, effects that the impressionists, particularly Monet who became his friend, would amplify.

“…if I became a painter, I owe it to Boudin”.
Monet

Finally, all of impressionism’s modernity is visible in Boudin’s work ten years before the movement appeared and was recognised by critics.

 

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Latest exhibitions dedicated to Eugène Boudin

Monet / Boudin

Musée Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
From June 26^th to September 30^th 2018

The Galerie de la Présidence lends seven works by Boudin to the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza.
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Eugène Boudin, l’atelier de la lumière

MuMa Le Havre
From April 16^th to September 26^th 2016

200 works, 116 of them on loan from private or public collections.
The Galerie de la Présidence lent works to this exhibition.
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Eugène Boudin

Musée Jacquemart-André, Paris
From March 22^nd to July 22^nd 2013 

The first parisian retrospective since 1899.
The Galerie de la Présidence lent works to this exhibition.
Read more

Read more about our loans to museums