Eugène Boudin

Allard, Paris
Baron du Teil, Paris (sold: Galerie Charpentier, Paris, November 20, 1933, lot 19)
Galerie Raphaël Gérard, Paris (by 1937)
Edward Jonas, Kansas City
Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Booth, Detroit (acquired from the above in 1941)
Thence by descent

More than any other artist of the 19th century, Boudin is known as the painter of the seaside.  Whether representing sailboats along the horizon or groups of women with their parasols, his canvases reveal the importance that this location held for the French bourgeousie.  In this picture from 1867, Boudin has depicted a large group of people enjoying a day at the beach.  Dressed in their summer clothes, the ladies sit on the sand, while the gentlemen surround them in clusters.  In the distance is a pavillion overlooking the water, where crowds usually gathered to watch the passing ships during the regatta. 

The sight of beachgoers along the Normandy Coast became increasingly common as the 19th century progressed, and Boudin was there to depict their activities.  The construction of railways in the 1850s and 1860s had made traveling to the shore from the city more accessible to the middle class.  Beach resorts, like the one depicted here, were favorite weekend destinations, and the popularity of going to the beach lead to the sun-worshipping culture that emerged nearly half a century later.  Boudin's paintings from this nascent period of beach culture document the emergence of this trend.  Painted in the decade before the Impressionist's plein air style of painting became popular, this picture foreshadows the innovations that soon transformed French landscape painting landscape painting.