Entrance to Honfleur Harbor
Artist: Johan Barthold Jongkind (Dutch, 1819-1891)
Date: 1863
Dimensions:
H: 13 1/8 in. (33.3 cm); W: 18 1/4 in. (46.3 cm)
Medium: Oil on canvas
Classification: Paintings
Credit Line: Purchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey
Object number: 1950.71
Label Text:In August of 1865 Dutch artist Johan Barthold Jongkind wrote to a friend:
“I have left Paris and here I am at Honfleur, the place to which I return as always with renewed pleasure. It is a little seaport where there are always ten or twenty ships of all nations, not counting the merchantmen and fishing boats of the same countries.”
Located on the coast of Normandy in northern France, Honfleur Harbor was a favorite spot of Jongkind’s, where he spent the summers of 1862 through 1865 painting and sketching the views. Taking advantage of his summer stays, Jongkind worked en plein air (in the open air) like the Impressionists on whom he was an influence, capturing the atmospheric effects of sky, water, and light that the harbor offered. Painted on a white ground rather than the dark ground usually preferred by French artists at the time, light radiates through Entrance to Honfleur Harbor, while the surface is enlivened by alluring strokes of the paintbrush that mimic the movement of water.
“I have left Paris and here I am at Honfleur, the place to which I return as always with renewed pleasure. It is a little seaport where there are always ten or twenty ships of all nations, not counting the merchantmen and fishing boats of the same countries.”
Located on the coast of Normandy in northern France, Honfleur Harbor was a favorite spot of Jongkind’s, where he spent the summers of 1862 through 1865 painting and sketching the views. Taking advantage of his summer stays, Jongkind worked en plein air (in the open air) like the Impressionists on whom he was an influence, capturing the atmospheric effects of sky, water, and light that the harbor offered. Painted on a white ground rather than the dark ground usually preferred by French artists at the time, light radiates through Entrance to Honfleur Harbor, while the surface is enlivened by alluring strokes of the paintbrush that mimic the movement of water.
Not on view
In Collection(s)