EUGÈNE BOUDIN (FRENCH, 1824-1898)

Eugène Boudin is regarded as one of the forerunners of the Impressionist movement. Born in Honfleur, he was the son of a ship's captain. Although Boudin did not take up the same trade, he retained a close bond with the sea, which became the subject of many of his later works. The young Boudin opened a framing shop in Le Havre which was popular with painters in the area. Jean-François Millet and Constant Troyon both had their work exhibited in the shop and it was Millet who encouraged Boudin to take up painting, which he did full-time in 1847. His early works were primarily influenced by seventeenth-century Dutch painting and the work of his contemporaries of the Barbizon School.
Boudin moved to Paris soon after, and it was during this period that he met several members of the Barbizon school including Théodore Rousseau and Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, to whom he was introduced by Millet. Like Corot, Boudin was largely self-taught and he followed Corot's example by working directly from nature. His fondness for painting from life and his fascination with studying the effects of light provided inspiration to the 18-year old Claude Monet, whom Boudin first introduced to painting en plein air. Boudin famously said ‘everything that is painted directly has a strength, a power, a vivacity of touch which one cannot recover in the studio.’
Boudin’s approach to painting anticipated the Impressionist movement and their desire to capture the transient effects of weather and light. In a letter to Frédéric Bazille written in Honfleur, Monet paid tribute to Boudin’s influence as well: ‘Boudin and Jongkind are here, we get on marvelously. There’s lots to be learned and nature begins to grow beautiful.’ In 1874, Boudin exhibited at the first Impressionist exhibition alongside Monet and his younger contemporaries, though he continued to submit his work to the official Salon as well. Today, Boudin is remembered as an important influence on the early Impressionists and a key figure in the 19th century’s transition from Naturalism to Impressionism.