Eugène Boudin was a largely self-taught artist and one of the first French landscape painters to paint outdoors. The majority of his plein-air paintings are small scenes of the contemporary beach resorts in northern France. The son of a sea captain who settled in Le Havre in 1835, Boudin met artists through his father's stationery and framing shop, which also sold artists' supplies. There he came into contact with artists working in the area, who encouraged young Boudin to follow an artistic career. Boudin visited Paris, where he studied at the Louvre and established contact with Barbizon painters. He also met the young Claude Monet about 1856 and introduced him to outdoor painting; the two subsequently worked together and remained lifelong friends. Monet later paid tribute to Boudin's early influence. Boudin joined Monet and his young friends in the first Impressionist exhibition in 1874, but never considered himself a radical or innovator. His growing reputation enabled him to travel extensively in the 1870s. Boudin visited Belgium, the Netherlands, and southern France, and from 1892 to 1895 made regular trips to Venice. He continued to exhibit at the Paris Salons, receiving a third place medal at the Paris Salon of 1881, and a gold medal at the 1889 Exposition Universelle. |
