Eugène Boudin

1824-1898

Eugène Boudin was a marine painter who mastered the rendering of sea and shore, and excelled at depicting sky and clouds. Born in Honfleur in 1824, the son of a harbor pilot, he worked in his father's stationery shop in Le Havre before committing to painting full-time at twenty-two. He studied in Paris under Eugène Isabey and was profoundly influenced by Dutch masters and the plein-air practice championed by Johan Jongkind. In 1857 he met the young Claude Monet and encouraged him to paint outdoors, shaping the future Impressionist's approach to light and color. Baudelaire and Corot both praised him—the latter calling him the "King of the skies." Boudin exhibited at the Paris Salon from 1859, joined the First Impressionist Exhibition in 1874, and received medals and the Legion of Honour late in life. He died in Deauville in 1898, having spent his final winters in southern France and Venice.