G. jean Aubry commented that “Boudin is one of the most interesting examples of instinctive creativity, a painter who demonstrates the uselessness of schools and rules, and the supreme virtue of personal effort, long patience, and a steadfast gift.”
With serene landscapes and dreamlike scenes, this steadfast gift is one that leaves the viewer craving more. What fueled this personal effort that led Boudin to the heights of artistic success?
Like some of the most impressive figures of our time, Eugene Boudin had humble beginnings. His father, Leonard-Sebastien Boudin, was born into a family of sailors and would continue to uphold this seafaring legacy. The younger Boudin, however, would break from this tradition, but his family’s ties to the seas would always touch his canvases in some way.
Boudin received no artistic encouragement from his family, it would be the people he surrounded himself with that would nurture his creative passions. In fact, it was an early employer who gave Boudin his first set of paints. At eighteen, he would start his own stationary shop with a colleague. Situated on a bustling street in Le Havre, he began to meet a cadre of artists vying to have their items displayed in his store’s window. These artists that undoubtedly helped inspire his artistic vision and they included Eugene Isabey, Constant Troyon, Thomas Couture, and Jean-Francois Millet.
Innate talent, drive, and an aesthetic inspired by and focused on the open ocean make Boudin’s nuanced scenes coveted by art lovers the world over. We are fortunate to not only enjoy these images in the gallery every day, but also share them with you.
