Eugène Boudin was unique - among the Impressionists and as an artist represented in this exhibition - because he was native to the Normandy coast, born to a sailor father and raised in the (then) fishing hamlet of Honfleur. The contrast of richly-clad, aristocratic travelers to his more humbly-clad, working neighbors could not have been more marked to any other artist's eye. This fascinated him, and one notes that his beach scenes are typically populated with elaborately dressed women (whose fashionable skirts, when pitted against ocean breezes, are clearly aerodynamic hindrances).
Here we see a group that includes Empress Eugénie (1826-1920), wife and consort to Napoleon III (1808-1873), who had long since gone from being President of the French Republic to Emperor of the French by the time this was painted in 1863. Can you tell which woman in this picture is the Empress? Me neither, and that seems wholly appropriate. It holds true to my own vacation experiences, wherein tourist destinations tend to blur class distinctions and offer equal opportunity fun.
About the show:
Impressionists by the Sea takes a wondering look back at how the northern coast of France evolved from shore communities (that had lived off of fishing and shipping for centuries) to vacation spots for Parisians at leisure during the second half of the 19th Century. The full exhibition contains 60 paintings that focus first, in the 1860s, on the well-heeled sightseers who came and played, and later, in the 1880s, on the bounty of colors and light offered by the cliffs, sand and sea themselves.
Scheduled Venues
Royal Academy of Arts: July 7-September 30, 2007
The Phillips Collection: October 20, 2007-January 13, 2008
Wadsworth Atheneum: February 9-May 11, 2008