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Lot Essay
Sur la plage de Trouville was painted by Boudin in 1867, at the end of a richly productive period during which he painted a series of magnificent beach scenes, comprising some of the finest compositions of his career.
Trouville was little more than a fishing village until the late 1820s, when it had been 'discovered' by artists and writers who were attracted to the vast skies and distinctive light of the Normandy coast. Boudin had first visited Trouville in either 1861 or 1862, enticed by the commissions and sales that work in this fashionable coastal resort would bring. In 1863 Queen Hortense and the Empress Eugènie made trips to Trouville and Deauville which instantly made both resorts even more popular. Of his new public, Boudin wrote, 'they love my ladies on the beach and some people say that there is a thread of gold to exploit there'. In the years that followed, Boudin continued to visit Normandy almost every year and as a result achieved financial security, eventually buying a house in Deauville in 1884.
'What fascinated Boudin at Trouville and Deauville was not so much the sea and the 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 his skies, which always took up at least two-thirds, if not three-quarters, of the picture' (J. Selz, Eugène Boudin, Paris, 1982, p. 57).
Boudin felt an intense proximity to nature in Trouville and cherished the wonderful range of light effects afforded him by working on the Normandy coast. He had a great affinity for the limitless skies, punctuated by beautiful cloud formations, the nuances of which were almost as important to the artist as the figures on the beach below. Corot had no doubt of Boudin's skills saying simply, 'Boudin, you are the king of the skies'.
Charles Beaudelaire was similarly complimentary about Boudin's ability to capture the effects of weather and atmosphere: 'On the margin of each of [his] studies, so rapidly and so faithfully sketched from the waves and the clouds (which are of all things the most inconstant and difficult to grasp, both in form and in colour), he has inscribed the date, the time and the wind. If you have ever had the time to become acquainted with these meteorological beauties, you will be able to verify by memory the accuracy of M. Boudin's observations. Cover the inscription with your hand, and you could guess the season, the time and the wind. I am not exaggerating. I have seen it. In the end, all these clouds, with their fantastic and luminous forms; these ferments of gloom; these immensities of green and pink, suspended and added one upon another; these gaping furnaces; these firmaments of black or purple satin, crumpled, rolled or torn; these horizons in mourning, or streaming with molten metal--in short, all these depths and all these splendours rose to my brain like a heady drink or like the eloquence of opium' ('The Salon of 1859', in Art in Paris, 1845-1862: Salons and Other Exhibitions, J. Mayne (trans. and ed.), Greenwich, 1965, pp. 199-200).
The first owner of Sur la plage de Trouville was the industrialist Henri Rouart, a lifelong friend of Edgar Degas' (fig. 1). The son of a manufacturer of military equipment, Rouart's innovative engineering interests included artificial refrigeration machines and gasoline powered engines. Rouart was himself an amateur painter and, together with his brother Alexis, built up an impressive collection of modern art, most of which was sold in Paris after his death in 1912. Sur la plage de Trouville was sold at auction in Paris the following year.
Trouville was little more than a fishing village until the late 1820s, when it had been 'discovered' by artists and writers who were attracted to the vast skies and distinctive light of the Normandy coast. Boudin had first visited Trouville in either 1861 or 1862, enticed by the commissions and sales that work in this fashionable coastal resort would bring. In 1863 Queen Hortense and the Empress Eugènie made trips to Trouville and Deauville which instantly made both resorts even more popular. Of his new public, Boudin wrote, 'they love my ladies on the beach and some people say that there is a thread of gold to exploit there'. In the years that followed, Boudin continued to visit Normandy almost every year and as a result achieved financial security, eventually buying a house in Deauville in 1884.
'What fascinated Boudin at Trouville and Deauville was not so much the sea and the 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 his skies, which always took up at least two-thirds, if not three-quarters, of the picture' (J. Selz, Eugène Boudin, Paris, 1982, p. 57).
Boudin felt an intense proximity to nature in Trouville and cherished the wonderful range of light effects afforded him by working on the Normandy coast. He had a great affinity for the limitless skies, punctuated by beautiful cloud formations, the nuances of which were almost as important to the artist as the figures on the beach below. Corot had no doubt of Boudin's skills saying simply, 'Boudin, you are the king of the skies'.
Charles Beaudelaire was similarly complimentary about Boudin's ability to capture the effects of weather and atmosphere: 'On the margin of each of [his] studies, so rapidly and so faithfully sketched from the waves and the clouds (which are of all things the most inconstant and difficult to grasp, both in form and in colour), he has inscribed the date, the time and the wind. If you have ever had the time to become acquainted with these meteorological beauties, you will be able to verify by memory the accuracy of M. Boudin's observations. Cover the inscription with your hand, and you could guess the season, the time and the wind. I am not exaggerating. I have seen it. In the end, all these clouds, with their fantastic and luminous forms; these ferments of gloom; these immensities of green and pink, suspended and added one upon another; these gaping furnaces; these firmaments of black or purple satin, crumpled, rolled or torn; these horizons in mourning, or streaming with molten metal--in short, all these depths and all these splendours rose to my brain like a heady drink or like the eloquence of opium' ('The Salon of 1859', in Art in Paris, 1845-1862: Salons and Other Exhibitions, J. Mayne (trans. and ed.), Greenwich, 1965, pp. 199-200).
The first owner of Sur la plage de Trouville was the industrialist Henri Rouart, a lifelong friend of Edgar Degas' (fig. 1). The son of a manufacturer of military equipment, Rouart's innovative engineering interests included artificial refrigeration machines and gasoline powered engines. Rouart was himself an amateur painter and, together with his brother Alexis, built up an impressive collection of modern art, most of which was sold in Paris after his death in 1912. Sur la plage de Trouville was sold at auction in Paris the following year.