Venise. Le Campanile, le Palais Ducal et la Piazzetta. Vue prise de San Giorgio

Eugène Boudin’s breathtaking piece Venise. Le Campanile, le Palais Ducal et la Piazzetta. Vue prise de San Giorgio, painted in 1895, is part of a major series of works inspired by the enthralling and oneiric Venetian cityscape. Punctuated by the magnificent spire of St Mark’s Bell Tower, the grandiose architecture of Doge’s Palace and the quintessential gondoliers and their gondolas across the Grand Canal, this work captures the truly magnetic, dynamic atmosphere of Venice. Boudin first visited the Veneto region at the age of 68 in 1892, returning in the following years and producing seventy-five works in a prolific period of two months in 1895.

The vibrancy of the palette throughout invites us into this buoyant scene as we imagine ourselves perched on the steps of the San Giorgio, hearing the gentle and rhythmic waves of the Canal lapping against the stonework. Venise. Le Campanile is infused with an unmistakable energy, populated by the passengers of gondolas gliding on the glimmering canal. The terracotta hues of the Venetian architecture are complimented by the myriad of turquoise blues in the clear water. Whirls of cream brushstrokes reveal a gently clouded sky, reflected in the soft waves of the Canal.

Boudin painted a number of works from this vantage point, building an Impressionist visual map of the Grand Canal and its surrounding magnificent architecture. Venise, la Salute, vue de San Giorgio, housed in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, mirrors elements in Venise. Le Campanile; notably the inverted rounded steps in the respective lower left and right corners create a dialogue between the works and provide a physical staging into the composition. Boudin’s signature rests in either corner of these exquisite paintings, a self-referential, even meta-theatrical, entrance into the wider landscape. Venise. Le Campanile bears the date of 5th July 1895, a painted postcard of the artist’s travels, produced at the height of the summer season. This piece also holds a personal significance for the artist, a romantic dedication to Boudin’s inamorata, Juliette Cabaud, with whom he shared the last six years of his life.

Writing to Durand-Ruel on 20th June 1895, merely a couple weeks prior to the creation of this work, Boudin affirms that ‘Venice like all the luminous regions is grey in colour, the atmosphere is soft and misty and the sky is decked with clouds just like the skies over Normandy or Holland’ (J. Selz, Eugène Boudin, p. 86). The artist’s delicate, masterful brushstrokes animate the Venetian scene; his choice of pastel, creamy hues evoking the hazy, dreamy atmosphere of the Floating City. Waterfronts, ranging from seascapes to harbour scenes, are indissociable from Boudin’s depictions of France, the Netherlands and Venice, revealing the shifting effects of light on aqueous settings.

Venise. Le Campanile featured in the 1899 Exposition des œuvres d’ Eugène Boudin at the Ecole des Beaux Arts, a monographic, posthumous exhibition that reflected on the artist’s life at the turn of the century and highlighted his role as the father of Impressionism. 126 years later, the Musée Marmottan, Paris, dedicated an exhibition to the artist this summer, reaffirming Boudin’s lasting legacy in the twenty-first century.