The Beach, Trouville

Artist Eugène Louis Boudin (French, 1824-1898)

Place of OriginFrance

Date1865

DimensionsPainting: H: 13 5/8 in. (34.6 cm); W: 22 5/8 in. (57.5 cm);
Frame: H:21 in. (53.3 cm); W: 30 1/4 in. (76.8 cm); Depth: 2 1/4 in. (5.7 cm)

MediumOil on wood panel

ClassificationPaintings

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1951.372

Not on View

Label TextOn a beach at the French resort town Trouville on the coast of the English Channel, vacationing Parisians cluster together under hazy skies. The hoop skirts, crinolines, and fashionable bolero jackets seem incongruous as beachwear, but as Englishman Henry Blackburn wrote in 1892, “It is not so much to bathe that we come here, as because…the world of fashion and delight has made [Trouville] its summer home; because here we can combine the refinements, pleasures and ‘distractions’ of Paris with northern breezes, and indulge without restraint in those rampant follies that only a Frenchman or Frenchwoman understands.” Eugène Boudin invented the genre of la mer moderne (the modern sea)—his rapid, vigorously painted impressions of the seaside peopled with the fashionable set. He was dubbed “le roi des ciels” (king of the skies) by Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot (see this gallery) for his luminous skies, which typically dominated his small canvases. Boudin was a strong advocate of painting and sketching en plein air (in the open air), a practice he introduced to a young Claude Monet (Gallery 35).Published ReferencesLee, Katharine C., "French Impressionism and Post-Impressionism," Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, vol. 12, no. 3, Autumn 1969, repr. p. 66.

Toledo Museum of Art, The Toledo Museum of Art, European Paintings, Toledo, 1976, p. 28-29, pl. 238.

Gerstein, Marc S., Impressionism: Selections from Five American Museums, New York, Hudson Hills Press, 1989, repr. (col.), p. 32.

Herbert, Robert L., Monet on the Normandy Coast: Tourism and Painting, 1867-1886, New Haven, 1994, p. 34, fig. 37.

Shone, Richard, The Janice H. Levin Collection of French Art, New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2002, p. 16, fig. 6, p. 18. Eugène Boudin, Paris, Musee Jacquemart-Andre, 2013, p. 110-111, no. 17.

Exhibition HistorySan Francisco, California Palace of the Legion of Honor; The Santa Barbara Musem of Art, Painters by the Sea, 1961.

Toledo Museum of Art; Pittsburgh, Carnegie Museum of Art; Minneapolis Institute of Arts; Kansas City, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art; Saint Louis Art Museum, Impressionism: Selections from Five American Museums, 1989-1990.

Grand Rapids, MI, Grand Rapids Museum of Art, An Impressionist Eye, 2004-2005.

Paris, Musée Jacquemart-André, Eugène Boudin, Mar. 21-Jul. 22, 2013.