Eugène Boudin

Théophile Bascle, Bordeaux (a gift from the artist)
Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, Paris (acquired from the above in March 1914)
Alex Reid, Glasgow (acquired from the above in January 1916)
Private Collection
Galerie Schmit, Paris
Acquired from the above by the present owner in 1985

Robert Schmit, Eugène Boudin. Catalogue Raisonné, Paris, 1973, vol. I, no. 496, illustrated p. 185

Trouville. Crinolines et cabines is a beautiful early example of Boudin's favourite subject, that of fashionably dressed figures on the beach of Trouville. Having settled in Paris after his marriage in 1863, throughout the 1860s and 1870s Boudin travelled every summer to Trouville, where he had found the inspiration to paint several variations on the themes most dear to him.

Jean Selz wrote: ''What fascinated Boudin at Trouville and Deauville was not so much the sea and ships, but the groups of people sitting on the sand or strolling along the beach: fine ladies in crinolines twirling their parasols, pompous gentlemen in top hats, children and little dogs playing on the sand. In the harmony of the colours of the elegant clothes he found a contrast to the delicacy of the skies' (J. Selz, Eugène Boudin, New York, 1982, p. 57).

By the second half of the nineteenth century Trouville had become a fashionable summer retreat for the French aristocracy, and their colourful costumes provided a subject-matter to which Boudin returned throughout his career. Captivated by the picturesque dress of these elegant society figures, Boudin rendered them in quick, Impressionistic brushstrokes highlighted by bright blue and red tones. What fascinated the artist was the contrast between these densely grouped men and women and the expanses of the sky against which they are depicted. Boudin's interest in capturing the fleeting effects of sunlight on sumptuous fabrics, so masterfully explored in the present painting, was to have a profound influence on Impressionist artists.