1991.71
Port of Le Havre
Artist
Eugène Louis Boudin
(Honfleur, France, 7/12/1824 - 8/8/1898, Paris, France)
Title
Port of Le Havre
Creation Date
1887
Century
19th century
Dimensions
25 3/4 in. x 35 5/8 in. (65.4 cm. x 90.5 cm.)
Object Type
painting
Creation Place
Europe, France
Medium and Support
oil on canvas
Credit Line
Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, Maine, Bequest of Mildred Curtis Hughson, in memory of her father, William John Curtis, Class of 1875
Copyright
Public Domain
Accession Number
1991.71
A cabin boy on his father’s ship, the artist Eugène Boudin remained captivated by the sea throughout his adult life. Following his training as a painter in Paris, Boudin divided his time between the French capital and the coasts of Normandy and Brittany. Boudin’s practice of working en plein air, as well as his use of bright colors, loose brushwork, and his interest in light inspired the young Claude Monet, who painted side-by-side with Boudin in the late 1850s. Later Boudin exhibited with Monet and other Impressionist painters. In choosing to paint the port of Le Havre, Boudin focused his attention on a bustling point of exchange that served as an entryway into Europe for goods such as coffee, cotton, and oil and as a major hub for travelers to the United States.
Object Description
View of the Le Havre harbor entrance; view across the water to the channel entrance. The painting should be compared with one of the following year from the collection of Mr. Paul Mellon, now in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC.