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Eugène-Louis
Boudin, French painter, was born in Honfleur, the son of a harbor
pilot.
In 1835, he settled in Le Havre, where he was apprenticed to a printer.
In 1838, he started to work in an art supplies store and drew in his
spare
time. Paintings by Couture, Millet, Troyon and other artists who
visited
the city were exhibited in the store. They gave young Boudin valuable
help
and advice. Soon he gave up the store, to dedicate himself
wholeheartedly
to painting. In 1847-48, he traveled to Paris, visited northern France.
In 1850, he exhibited two pictures in Le Havre, after which the town
granted
him a three-year scholarship to study in Paris (1851-1853).
Boudin first exhibited at the 1859 Salon and then at the 1863 Salon des
Refusés. After his return to Le Havre he spent many summers on
the
farm of Saint Siméon, in the environs of Honfleur. He traveled
widely
in Normandy and Brittany, and visited Holland, Belgium and Venice.
Wherever
he went, he invariably painted harbor and beach scenes. In the 1850s,
Boudin
met Claude Monet and did much
to
help the young painter find his true artistic self. In the 1860s he
frequently
saw Edouard Manet and worked
with
him in Boulogne and Deauville.
In the 1870s, the Impressionists, in their turn, began to exert an
influence
on Boudin. His land- and seascapes of that period are filled with a
constantly
changing iridescent light; his palette grows lighter and the
brushstrokes
assume the aspect of soft, blurred patches of color. In 1874, Boudin
took
part in the 1st Impressionist Exhibition. He also frequently exhibited
with the Impressionists later. His pictures of the sea made him one of
the precursors of the Impressionists.
Bibliography:
Landscapes by Barbizon School. by N.Yavorskaya. Moscow.
1962.
Painting of Europe. XIII-XX centuries. Encyclopedic Dictionary.
Moscow. Iskusstvo. 1999.
Eugиne Boudin, 1824-1898
by Eugиne Boudin. Editions Anthèse, 1992.
Boudin et la Normandie
by Laurent Manoeuvre. Herscher, 1991.
Eugиne Boudin
by Georges Jean-Aubry. New York Graphic Society, 1968.
Eugène Boudin
by Georges Jean-Aubry, Robert Schmit. Ides et Calendes, 1998.