The Beach

1877

Eugène Boudin

Artist, French, 1824 - 1898

A row of about a dozen men and women sit, stand, or stroll along a sandy beach beneath a pale blue sky in this horizontal landscape painting. The scene is loosely painted so many of the facial features and other details are indistinct. The women wear dresses with long sleeves and skirts in shades of charcoal gray, parchment brown, vivid red, sapphire blue, or white. Five of them shade themselves with black parasols, and a woman to the right uses a white parasol with a topaz-blue interior. The men wear dark suits and straw-yellow hats. Another group of people clustered closer to the water to the right are even more loosely painted. A few people seem to wade out into the water, and dark smudges near the horizon suggest sailboats and one steamer. The horizon comes about two-thirds of the way up this composition, and the water and sky are similar tones of muted, ice blue. The artist signed the lower left corner, “E. Boudin.”

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on wood

  • Credit Line

    Ailsa Mellon Bruce Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 11 x 25.6 cm, 0.3 cm (4 5/16 x 10 1/16 in., 1/8 in.)
    framed: 21.6 x 36.2 x 2.9 cm (8 1/2 x 14 1/4 x 1 1/8 in.)

  • Accession

    1970.17.14

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Harold Sidney Harmsworth, 1st viscount Rothermere [d.1940]; (his sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 19 December 1941, no. 37); purchased by (Arthur Tooth and Sons, London and Paris) for Capt. Edward H. Molyneux [1891-1974], Paris;[1] sold 15 August 1955 to Ailsa Mellon Bruce [1901-1969], New York; bequest 1970 to NGA.[2]
[1] Arthur Tooth records, volume XXI, London Branch Stock Inventory, p. 85 (Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, accession no. 860679). There is a label from "Arthur Tooth & Sons" on the reverse of the painting, on the top bar of the cradle.
[2] According to the Ailsa Mellon Bruce notebook, now in NGA archives; copy in NGA curatorial files.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1942

  • Nineteenth Century French Paintings, National Gallery, London, 1942, no. 31 (probably).

1952

  • French Paintings from the Molyneux Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1952, unnumbered checklist.

1956

  • Hampton National Historic Site, Towson, MD, May - October 1956.

1961

  • French Paintings of the Nineteenth Century from the Collection of Mrs. Mellon Bruce, California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, 1961, no. 7, repro

1966

  • French Paintings from the Collections of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon and Mrs. Mellon Bruce, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1966, no. 18, repro

1989

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

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.

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: 10, repro. (continuing exhibition beginning in 1978).

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 443, no. 631, color repro.

1985

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

Inscriptions

lower left: E. Boudin; lower right: Tll. [Trouville] 77.

Wikidata ID

Q20188828

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