Beach at Trouville

1864/1865

Eugène Boudin

Artist, French, 1824 - 1898

Eight men, women, and children stand or sit in straight-backed, wooden chairs gathered along a sandy beach near low, gently breaking waves with sailboats floating in the ocean beyond in this horizontal landscape painting. The scene is loosely painted throughout, making much of the detail indistinct. Most of the people sit with their backs to us but the faces we can see suggest they have light skin. The people gather in a loose crowd that spans the left half of the composition, except for one woman wearing white and holding a blue parasol who sits to the right. The women wear long dresses with full skirts in shades of black, aquamarine or arctic blue, or snowy white. They all wear straw-colored hats with royal-blue bands. The three men also wear hats and suits in black or pecan brown. Two women, in addition to the one sitting alone, hold up blue parasols. One child wears a white dress and hat, and the other wears shades of blue and a straw hat with a red band. A white dog with brown spots stands on our side of the chairs near a woman and the child wearing white. One tall, wooden pole with a blue banner rises high above the crowd near the left edge of the composition, and another with a red pennant is farther back to the right. Between the group and the water, a person rides a brown horse, several women walk, and two children play in the sand. A rowboat is near the breaking waves and five white sailboats line the horizon, which comes about a quarter of the way up this painting. A steamship leaves a line of muted lilac-purple smoke in the deep distance to the right. A blanket of pale gray clouds cover much of the bright blue sky. The artist signed the lower right corner, “E. Boudin.”

Media Options

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On View

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 92

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on wood

  • Credit Line

    Ailsa Mellon Bruce Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall (including surrounding strips of wood, approx. .005): 27 x 49.1 cm (10 5/8 x 19 5/16 in.)
    framed: 41.3 x 63.3 x 9.5 cm (16 1/4 x 24 15/16 x 3 3/4 in.)

  • Accession

    1970.17.12

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Dieterle, Paris. Paul Gerson, New York. Harold Sidney Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Rothermere [d.1940]; (his sale, Christie's, London, 19 December 1941, no. 34); purchased by (Arthur Tooth and Sons, London and Paris) for Capt. Edward H. Molyneux [1891-1974], Paris, by 1952;[1] sold 15 August 1955 to Ailsa Mellon Bruce [1901-1969], New York; bequest 1970 to NGA.
[1] According to annotated copy of the sales catalogue in NGA curatorial files. This is almost certainly the picture recorded as Boudin, "At Deauville" in Arthur Tooth records, volume XXI, London Branch Stock Inventory, p. 85 (Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, accession no. 860679), which was sold with another Rothermere picture to Molyneux on the day of the Christie's sale.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1942

  • Nineteenth Century French Paintings, National Gallery, London, 1942, no. 68,as La Plage à Deauville.

1952

  • French Paintings from the Molyneux Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1952, unnumbered checklist [according to Small French Paintings (1978)].

1966

  • French Paintings from the Collections of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon and Mrs. Mellon Bruce, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1966, no. 16, repro.

1989

  • Paintings by Eugène Boudin from the National Gallery of Art, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1989, no cat.

1990

  • Französische Impressionisten und ihre Wegbereiter aus der National Gallery of Art, Washington und dem Cincinnati Art Museum, Neue Pinakothek, Munich, 1990, no. 30, repro.

1992

  • From El Greco to Cézanne: Masterpieces of European Painting from the National Gallery of Art, Washington, and The Metroplitan Museum of Art, New York, National Gallery of Greece, Athens, 1992-1993, no. 44, repro.

1999

  • Around Impressionism: French Paintings from the National Gallery of Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1999, no cat.

  • Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art, Washington, Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art; Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, 1999, no. 11, repro.

2007

  • Eugène Boudin at the National Gallery of Art, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 2007, no cat.

  • Eugene Boudin, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, 2007-2008, no cat.

2009

  • Loan to display with permanent collection, Academy Art Museum, Easton, Maryland, 2009-2010, no catalogue.

2013

  • Intimate Impressionism from the National Gallery of Art, Museo dell'Ara Pacis Augustae, Rome (exhibition title in this venue: Impressionist Gems); California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco; McNay Art Museum, San Antonio; Mitsubishi Ichigokan Museum, Tokyo, Seattle Art Museum, 2013-2016, pl. 9.

Bibliography

1975

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 42, repro.

1978

  • Small French Paintings from the Bequest of Ailsa Mellon Bruce. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1978: 6, repro. (continuing exhibition beginning in 1978).

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 443, no. 634, color repro.

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 61, repro.

1990

  • Französische Impressionisten und ihre Wegbereiter aus der National Gallery of Art, Washington und dem Cincinnati Art Museum. Exh. cat. Neue Pinakothek, Munich, 1990: no. 30, repro.

1991

  • Kopper, Philip. America's National Gallery of Art: A Gift to the Nation. New York, 1991: 260, color repro.

Inscriptions

lower right: E. Boudin.

Wikidata ID

Q20188645

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