Eugène Boudin

Gustave Templaere, Paris
Sale: Hôtel Drouot, Paris, October 29, 1915, lot 2
Durand-Ruel, Paris (acquired at the above sale)
Sale: Hôtel Drouot, Paris, March 21, 1963, lot 49
Sale: Palais Galliéra, Paris, December 6, 1968, lot 14
Durand-Ruel Galleries, New York
Acquavella Galleries, Inc., New York
Acquired from the above

Robert Schmit, Eugène Boudin, 1824-1898, vol. I, Paris, 1973, no. 802, illustrated p. 287

The work is in very good condition. The canvas is not lined. There are some losses and rubbing due to frame abrasion along the right, lower and upper edges. There are minor vertical stretcher bar marks along the right and left edges, visible under raking light. The varnish is slightly yellowed in the sky. The pigments are bright and the impasto well-preserved. Under UV light, There are two tiny pindot stokes of inpainting in the sky. There is one nailhead sized area of inpainting just above the ship's mast at right. Otherwise fine.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Boudin’s sun-drenched brushwork was praised by his peers for its ability to capture the ever-changing skies of northern maritime France. He received effusive accolades from other artists, most notably Corot who famously hailed him the “King of the Sky” and Courbet who was moved to declare: “My God, you are a seraph, Boudin! You are the only one of us who really knows the sky” (quoted in Ruth L. Benjamin, Eugène Boudin, New York, 1937, p. 46). These skies inspired a new generation of painters, chief among them Claude Monet, to whom Boudin became a close friend and mentor. After observing Boudin paint for the first time, Monet declared: “Suddenly it was as if a veil had been torn from my eyes. I understood what painting could be. Boudin’s absorption in his work, and his independence, were enough to decide the entire future and development of my painting” (quoted in Peter C. Sutton, Boudin: Impressionist Marine Paintings (exhibition catalogue), Peabody Museum of Salem, Massachusetts, 1991, p. 54).

Depicting the port of Camaret, in far northwestern France on at the end of the Crozon peninsula, the present work is a stunning and graceful testament to Boudin’s favorite subject and to his mature style. Following the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, there was a struggle to understand and define the new national identity within France, and this struggle very much informed Boudin’s artistic pursuits. The country had lost the territories of Alsace and parts of Lorraine to the German Empire, significantly altering the country’s borders, topography and culture, and at this time a universal education system inclusive of French geography was established, forcing the citizenry to grapple with the essential question of what it meant to be French. Landscape painting within France was elevated to a status of even greater importance, and indeed the many seascapes and harbor scenes painted by Boudin in the final decades of the nineteenth century may be viewed as an exploration of this concern. Depicting the delineation between land and sea, coastal imagery was of great import not only for what it allowed Boudin to achieve aesthetically, in exploring and rendering myriad and evolving atmospheric conditions, but also as a visual representation of France’s geographical boundaries at a time when so many of its people felt themselves unmoored.