Eugène Boudin

Brandois, Paris
Muller, Paris
Arthur Tooth & Sons, London
The 9th Earl of Jersey, Jersey (acquired from the above on 6th March 1950)
Thence by descent to the present owners

St. Helier, Jersey Museum and Art Gallery, Barreau Art Gallery, Old Masters from Jersey Collections, 1952

Robert Schmit, Eugène Boudin, Catalogue Raisonné, Paris, 1973, vol. I, no. 776, illustrated p. 227

Oil on cradled-panel. UV examination reveals a horizontal line of retouching across the upper part of the sky which corresponds to a previous repair to the panel, and some further spots and lines of retouching to the upper centre edge. There is no retouching to the figures and foreground. Otherwise, this work is in overall good condition.
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Scène de plage à Trouville 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 endless 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 and the effect of a windy day on the flowing garments, so masterfully explored in the present painting, was to have a profound influence on Impressionist artists.