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Lot Essay
The present work was painted in Saint-Valéry-sur-Somme in 1891 while Boudin was touring the coastline of north-west France. The previous year had seen Boudin's growing success reach new heights. Durand-Ruel held his third exhibition of the artist's works at his gallery in Paris, as well as organising a show in Boston at Chase's Gallery. The paintings which Boudin sent to the Amis des Arts exhibition in Le Havre all sold, equalling the success that he had already attained at the Salon of the Société des Beaux-Arts and at the 1889 World Exhibition. Lacking paintings to meet the commissions of a rapidly expanding client base clamouring to buy pictures, Boudin spent the summer painting on the coast of Normandy.
In L'Ecluse à Saint-Valéry-sur-Somme Boudin balances the two broad expanses of the composition; in the foreground, the canal with its delicate reflections and sun-drenched banks; above, the limitless sky, heavy and fluid with low clouds. The whole composition is drenched in strong sunlight, testament to Boudin's unrivalled ability to capture the effects of weather and atmosphere. 'Sometimes when I'm out walking, in a melancholy frame of mind I look at this light which floods the earth, which quivers on the water and plays on clothes and it is frightening to think how much genius is required to capture so many difficulties, how limited man's spirit is, not being able to put all these things together in his head. And then again I sense that poetry is there and sense how to capture it. I sometimes catch a glimpse of what would have to be expressed' (G. de Knyff, Boudin raconté par lui-même, Sa vie, son atelier, son oeuvre, Paris, 1976, p. 42).
In L'Ecluse à Saint-Valéry-sur-Somme Boudin balances the two broad expanses of the composition; in the foreground, the canal with its delicate reflections and sun-drenched banks; above, the limitless sky, heavy and fluid with low clouds. The whole composition is drenched in strong sunlight, testament to Boudin's unrivalled ability to capture the effects of weather and atmosphere. 'Sometimes when I'm out walking, in a melancholy frame of mind I look at this light which floods the earth, which quivers on the water and plays on clothes and it is frightening to think how much genius is required to capture so many difficulties, how limited man's spirit is, not being able to put all these things together in his head. And then again I sense that poetry is there and sense how to capture it. I sometimes catch a glimpse of what would have to be expressed' (G. de Knyff, Boudin raconté par lui-même, Sa vie, son atelier, son oeuvre, Paris, 1976, p. 42).